


Love Like Flowers

by rivaillin



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, Flowers, M/M, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-01 21:00:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 42,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1048522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rivaillin/pseuds/rivaillin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A scarlet geranium, a white water-lily, a centaurea and a fennel. There are many flowers, and each one of them has a meaning. Eren would never guess such heartless yet delicate creatures would teach him the meaning of love and lead him to meet the person who would turn his life around. Eren (21 years old) and Levi (30 years old) Ereri AU. WARNING! for JeanxErenxJean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so after trying some things out with Sprouting Wings, I decided to give a thought about something with a better arranged plot and more character development. The idea of Levi working at a flower shop was quite appealing (and gay). So I though, why not? And well, there will be a lot of refferences to flowers in further chapters. I will try to explain the meaning of each one of them (if not in the fic itself, then in the notes). Also, this chapter has a major warning for JeanxEren. They are one of my sexy couples from Shingeki no Kyojin. I don't particulary ship them, but they're quite the sexy duo together.
> 
> To those who read SP, don't worry. I will still work on that one fic and I will finish it. Meanwhile, let's enjoy this as much as we can? I am currently working on chapter two so that one might be up quite soon. Thank you! Love you guys <3

“Hey, Eren, are you listening to me?”

I snapped back to reality so quickly I felt dizzy. Jean was in front of me, waving his hand in front of my eyes. It was annoying. Everything he did, actually, was annoying. “What?” I prompted.

“Were you even listening to anything I’ve said?” He sighed when I rolled my eyes. “Alright, what’s the last thing you remember?”

I picked up some fries from the plate in front of me. “Somewhere between the _‘Oh my god, but Marco’_ and the _‘But he’s too cute for just anything’_ … Yeah, somewhere along those…” The way I tried to fake his voice made him throw a glare at me. I just shrugged and kept on eating.

“Well, seems like you didn’t lose much, then.”

Oh, of course I didn’t. Anything he said was a waste of my time. Actually, I had no knowledge why I decided having lunch with him was a good idea. We weren’t even friends! Though we could add a _sex_ after _friends_ if it came down to those terms, but that wasn’t even the issue. The true problem was that I hated Jean.

“So I suppose you’re listening right now…” He trailed off and I just looked at him as if that was enough of a _yes_. He went on. “It’s Marco’s promotion soon and I wanted to give him something different. I mean… to show how special he is to me, get it?” Nope, I didn’t get it but I kept quiet so he could go on. “And I have no idea of what to do… And you’re the only one who can help me out with this… unfortunately… So…”

Wow, seeing Jean like that really did ignite a spark in my soul. Not one of good, though. It was nice to have the advantage. The power of denying him something, something important to him, felt actually quite good. “But what’s the deal? It’s just a promotion anyway. Besides, you keep saying he’s special to you and yet I’m the one you fuck quite hard in a bed.” I had to grin. I really did, because I was winning there.

Jean’s jaw dropped quite hard at my daring attitude. He looked around, trying to see if anyone had caught a drift of our conversation, and then turned back to me. “You’re a dick.”

“Likewise…” I mumbled, eyebrow raised.

“I hate you… I really do.”

“Don’t worry. It’s mutual.” I grabbed my glass of beer and gave it quite this hard gulp. I could see how the horse face in front of me was struggling with an inner conflict and that felt quite amazing. Still, for the sake of Marco—not of Jean, mind you—I decided to be less of a dick. “So…”I trailed off as I leaned my cup down. “What’s that promotion about?”

Jean lifted his head at my words, eyes sparkling with excitement, and I had to pull off a disgusted face at that. I really had to. “Well, you know that tiny company he works for during his free time?” I nodded at him. “Well… He’s the hardworking type… so it seems they are offering him a full-time job.” I couldn’t understand why he was fidgeting at that but whatever.

“But what about university?”

He blinked slowly at me. “He’ll do it through exams. It’s just a year left after all.”

“Well, I don’t quite understand a shit about that, but sounds complicated. I mean, Law is…”

Jean waved his hand between us. “It’s nothing of the other world. I mean, that’s where I come in… Get it?” And that was when I had no idea if I just wanted to hide in a hole or kick his face. He was wearing such a stupid expression it almost made me feel sorry for him. “So, back to the subject… What do I give him?”

I nibbled at some other fry. “Your dick…”

“Eren, not everyone has your sex drive.” That was more of a compliment than he’d ever know so I had to grin. “So could you please use your heart? If you even have one…? Be a little romantic, if you can.”

Now, that was quite different. I was more romantic than he was. Of course, he would never know that either. Just because we fucked every time we were horny didn’t mean I owed him anything. Much less any of my good sides… “I dunno… maybe flowers?” That was actually the first thing that came to my head.

He snorted. “Flowers?” A pause. “You’re joking, right?”

I was offended, and that could be seen by the way I was suddenly straightening up in my chair. “No, Jean. I am not joking. Flowers.”

“That’s gay.”

What a terrible comeback. “Not that you’re any better? No really…” I crossed my arms above the table. “You almost got me there when you were trying to hook up my sister, but your nature was more truthful to you than yourself.” My finger was pointing at both of us. “So don’t tell me flowers are gay.”

He blinked a few times. “Alright, why flowers?”

“Flowers have meanings… you could just pick up some that…”I looked at the ceiling, trying to pick the right words. When I got them, I grinned and extended my hand at him as if I was offering something. “That show him how you feel.”

We stared at each other for quite a while until he just sighed and leaned back on his seat. That was also when I noticed he was done with his food and I was the only one left with stuff to eat. I didn’t have much of an appetite, though, and it wasn’t hard to guess why. The company… it’s always about the company.

“Alright… I’ll consider that.” He nodded. “But how do you know so much about that stuff? Are you secretly a flower lover?” There was an evil voicing there but I ignored it.

“Yes, I am. Problem?”

“Not at all!” He claimed as he threw his hands up, checking his watch in the meantime. “Ah, it’s almost three… I should get going.”

Oh my god, yes please. He had no idea of how much I just wanted him to disappear. Still, I had to wait for his Excellency to take out his wallet and shove some coins above the table.

“I suppose that covers for my share.” He mumbled before craving his eyes somewhere along my shoulder. “What’s that on your jacket?”

“What?”

“That.” He pointed at something behind me. “That blue jacket is yours right?”

I looked back and stared at the piece of clothing sitting on the back of my chair. There was nothing wrong with it, but before I could turn and ask him what the fuck he was talking about, I felt two lips pressed on my cheek.

“Have a good day, asshole.” He mumbled against my ear before he took off.

It took me a few seconds to regain conscience. “Wha-What?!” Late, too late to shout at him. When I looked over he was already gone from the coffee shop.

Without wasting any more time I took his money and placed a note that covered for both shares. I grabbed my things, my jacket and my bag, and stormed out of the store without even considering whoever was looking at me. He’d done that on purpose, that assface.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the car with me. Mikasa had taken it that morning so I was doomed to walk back home by foot. It wasn’t a bad thing since it covered up for my lack of exercise. Still, it was boring. Not only the leaves had started to fall down as autumn approached but also the days were getting colder and shorter. Everything was turning boring. It was the true nature of winter: boredom.

Took me about forty-five minutes to get home. I was trying to save up money, so using the underground or any other kind of public transportation was out of question. Those ate money like some big anacondas.

I lived in a small apartment dad was able to rent for both me and Mikasa. Mom pretty much lived in hospital already so there was no need for both of us to live in a big house by ourselves. Our building was quite nice. The neighborhood was ok. Not to mention it was a lot more secure than the last place we lived in. The only thing I was sort of against at, was having to share that amazing place with my older sister by a month. Not that I didn’t like her, I really did like her. But there were things I’d rather be left alone about.

First of all she loved to control my life. Sometimes she’d try to know my whole schedule for the day and that was really annoying. Then, I couldn’t just consider anything at all without having her giving me that disapproval look. It was as if every time I opened my mouth I was about to disappoint her. Thirdly, there are certain things about guys, girls don’t quite comprehend. Well, at least Mikasa didn’t. She didn’t understand why I had to spend I little more of time in the bathroom—like she was the only one allowed to do so with the excuse she was on her period. Fuck periods anyway—and she didn’t understand why I’d have to lock my room every single night. She kept telling me someday I would be about to die and because of that she wouldn’t be able to save me—considering she has that idea of how I am always the one who gets saved by her, bullshit—but when she was always storming in at the most unexpected times, I really had to lock the damn door.

Still, taking Mikasa and her overprotective sibling side away, it was a rather nice place to live in. And with that said, the troubles started the moment my key went through the locker.

“Eren!” I heard my sister call. The door wasn’t even open and she was already rushing to me. “Eren, I need a favor.”

“Can you at least let me in?” My eyes went from hair to toe, taking a look at the way she was dressed. “More importantly… are you going somewhere?” I never considered much whatever she wore all the time. She had a good taste for clothes. But now she was dressed all in black and there was something about her make up that didn’t make sense. “You look like Count Dracula, by the way…” I mumbled while trying to get between her and the door.

“What do you mean _am I going somewhere_ …? Eren, the concert is today.”

I stopped and looked at her above my shoulder as I undressed my jacket. “Concert? What concert?” I really had no idea of what she was talking about. Or maybe I did, but I couldn’t remember it at all.

She sighed. “Eren… the concert I have been waiting to go to for about a year…?”

“Oh… Oh! The gothic thing?” I asked, eyebrow raised. “I don’t even know how you like that shit. Anyway, I would like to have the keys. I need the car for the evening.”

Her eyes sharpened for a while but then her expression went soft and blank. “That’s the favor I wanted to ask you… I need the car for the evening too. Annie says her father won’t let her drive for the next couple of years so… That’s it.”

 _Great_. That was just great. She had to be joking. “Mikasa, I told you I was going to visit mom during the evening. I _need_ the car…” Plus, that’s what Annie got for driving drunk from Reiner’s party last time. It was more than deserved.

“Eren, we can go visit her tomorrow… _together_. Besides, you’ve been out the whole afternoon. Where the hell have you been? If you wanted to visit her so badly you could have done that already.”

 _And_ I snapped. If there was something I had a problem with, it was my temper. And if there was a subject my temper was fragile about, it was my mother. “What the actual fuck. You know as much as I do that she might not even be there tomorrow… I need the car. I want to see her and I am going to see her. Give me the keys!” I stretched my arm at her, hand open to receive what I wanted her to give me.

She scowled. “Eren… Stop making a drama about this… I need the car for the concert. We will visit mom tomorrow, alright?”

“No. I want to go visit her today.”

Her glare intensified a bit more. “Can’t you do me this little favor? That’s all I am asking.”

“It’s not just a little favor, Mikasa. Give me the fucking keys.” It was in times like these that I considered I hated her the most—which was not true, but I had a tendency to blind myself with anger and rage.

There was a pause, a tense moment. The more she glared at me, the more anger boiled inside my head. I had no idea how much time we stayed like that. She, trying to fix me with a look, and me, just hanging my hand in the air, ready to receive those keys…

In the end, she sighed. “I will take you to the hospital and then I’ll head to the concert. So hurry up.”

“That’s great, but how do I get back home?” I pointed out. “I am not staying there until five in the morning.”

Mikasa shrugged. “I don’t know. Just ask someone to bring you back home. You have friends, right? Just don’t forget to text me about it.” And with that, she passed by, making the cool air from the hallway hit my face and making me shiver.

_God, I hated her._

We still argued about the whole thing for about half an hour. But in the end I ended up in our reliable Honda Accord’s passenger seat. Dad had left that car behind and was using his Ford Taurus to commute, so we had no choice but to stick with the Honda. It wasn’t a bad car, the color, though… I hated white.

The hospital was about thirty minutes away from our house and we kept the whole way in silence, honoring the fact that we were mad at each other. That was the good thing about Mikasa, she understood the cue.

As she dropped me by, however, she grabbed my hand before I could exit the car. I looked at her above my shoulder and fixed her with a look. She didn’t let go, though.

“Eren, be sure get home early.” She told me, in that so concerned mother-y tone of hers.

“I know…”

“And, please, tell me who is taking you home, ok?”

I shoved her hand a way and hauled out of the car. “Whatever.” I had no idea if she knew how much that behavior of hers got on my nerves, but then I guessed I wasn’t any sweet pie either and that she could have a lot to complain about as well. Like the laundry I never took care of, the dishes I never washed and just piled up in the sink… Those things…

And wow, if it wasn’t freezing outside. I had no idea it could get so cold in only a week. It was in that kind of weather that people would get easily sick. A day full of sun and warmth and a night with a stupidly cold breeze… I considered getting back in the car for a while, but there was no way I was going to do that, so I just slammed the door both to indicate I was still angry and also to take away the temptation, and jogged through the parking lot to the hospital’s entrance.

There was something about hospitals that made me feel quite uneasy. Maybe it was because I never really visited one before mom started having problems. Or maybe was because I had to visit it because mom had problems. Whichever the reason, it wasn’t a comfortable place, and I couldn’t stop feeling sorry for those who had to work in such environment.

I texted Jean while I was waiting for the elevator to come down.  Unfortunately, he was the only one I could ask for a ride. Armin didn’t have a license and Connie… well, I had no idea how in the world that guy passed his driving exam. There were still the girls, but it’s not like I felt comfortable asking them such favor. So yeah, Jean—and shit, I hated to put it like this—was all I had when it was up to that. I simply wrote _‘Come pick me up by the hospital in about an hour.’,_ being demanding worked better than having to start a conversation to ask for an errand.

He replied when I was already on the third floor. I told the receptionist from the flat I would be visiting Carla Jäger in room 350 and only then picked up my phone to check it. _‘Favors ask for compensation, Eren. I am not leaving League of Legends for you without a good payback, no way.’_

That guy couldn’t be more annoying. _‘Whatever, just come.’_

He replied, but I was already entering room 350 so I ignored the buzz in my pocket. My heart almost dropped when I saw mom so quiet and peaceful. She seemed to be sleeping, so I just stepped in slowly and sat on the chair beside her bed.

There was something about that room that gave it quite the heavenly feeling. Everything was white and mom was quite the contrast with her brown hair and soft but colored skin. I had to smile at the image of her dressed in white. It didn’t fit her at all because it bleached out the color of her skin, but made her feel quite angel-like.

I leaned back and took a deep breath. Mom had been induced to sleep about two days ago because she was in so much pain she couldn’t endure it. The doctors had tried to contact dad but, as always, he didn’t reply. They called Mikasa instead and told her they would induce our mother in a coma. Of course Mikasa agreed. I wasn’t against it either, if that was the best for mom. But then again, I was selfish, and I found my days quite sad when I couldn’t just walk into that room every evening and see the smile on mom’s face because, once again, I was keeping my promise of visiting her every single day.

Maybe I was stupid. I was too attached. Mikasa loved her as well, but she wouldn’t visit as much as I would. Dad was busy with work, trying to earn enough money to pay for both me and my sister. But then mom was all alone. I didn’t want her to be alone, so I visited every day. Probably thanks to that, our relationship jumped quite the hurdle. Before, we would fight about basically every little thing. We were too much alike to let it go. Still, lately I couldn’t help but regret those times. If only I had been a good kid until the end. But now it was too late to go back. I was 21, no job, no girlfriend, pretty much into guys, no life… I was such a disappointment. I needed to take care of that.

My head dropped and my eyes rolled up to catch a glimpse of the dried out flowers in a jar on the table by the bed. “Ah…” My orbs shifted to mom. “I’m sorry; I didn’t have time to bring you some new flowers…” My brows furrowed. “You see, Mikasa was such a nag today… She didn’t let me have the car because of some stupid concert that happens every single year. If I had the car I would have passed by a flower shop but… There it is.” A pause and then a sigh. “You should scold her, really… Even though I have this feeling you would scold me instead right now for talking about Mikasa on her back when I was probably a nag as well…” Snickering at that was only natural. I knew my mother well enough to the point I could just guess what she would tell me when she wasn’t even present. It was quite of a help sometimes. “Also… I decided I should really get a job. I didn’t apply to university again this year, like I said I would. It’s not my thing and you know it… Mikasa is doing fine with it, by the way, even though I find Annie a really bad influence, but whatever.” I looked over at mom again and felt a painful ball of air in my throat.

I don’t know how much time I kept the silence going, but it wasn’t an awkward calm. Being next to mom and enjoying such moments was something I liked a lot. Not everyone can keep up with a lack of dialogue. People have this need to fill in the silence with nonsense just to keep up a conversation. But like this it was fine.

The clock above the bed marked the six o’clock. Jean would be there in a few minutes and I had no idea if I really wanted to leave, but I would have to. Getting up seemed hard and I wondered if I was tired. Still, I just leaned on the bed to kiss mom’s forehead and tell her I’d be visiting again the next day and definitely bring some new flowers. She didn’t move, and that made me sad. If it wasn’t for her chest moving at each breath, she would seem quite… dead.

With a scowl, I ended up leaving the room. Getting upset over my own thoughts was only natural, but I couldn’t just storm in such a place. I could just wait for Jean and chop his head off of his neck. That actually seemed like a good idea and my lips curled up in a content smirk. And considering Jean, I still had to check that message. I picked my phone and gave a quick look through the messages. _‘Alright, but just to prove you I am much more of a nice person than you are. I’ll be there around six.’_ He wrote. And well, it was past six already so _good person_ or not he was quite late.

There was a vending machine right by the main door of the building so I went there to take a look. It was nothing but soft drinks and chocolates. I guessed a chocolate wouldn’t be bad so I took some of the coins I had on my wallet and bought something to bite on while I waited for the horse face. Kit Kat, that shit was getting old.

Jean arrived ten minutes later in his so cool Audi A4—the other main reason why I hated Jean, because his car was better than mine and he didn’t need to share with anyone else but himself—and parked right in front of me, lowering a window and waving for me to come closer. “Hey, that thing you’re eating… get me one as well.” He told me as he shoved his wallet at me so quickly I almost missed it.

“Where’s the _please_ in your sentence?” I teased.

“Eren, I am doing you a favor here, stop being a kid and go buy me a fucking Kit Kat.”

I did as I was told, not because I actually wanted to but because I opted not to make a fuss over it this time. I got him the Kit Kat, stole him a few coins he probably wouldn’t miss even if he noticed they were gone, and went back to the car before shoving his Kit Kat on his lap.

“Thanks.”

“No problem…” I mumbled as I put my belt on.

After taking a bite of his snack, Jean took off. He wasn’t quite the silence type of person and so he started talking the minute he swallowed what he had in his mouth. “How was your mother?” He asked.

“Quiet.”

We exchanged a look and he smirked. “I meant to ask if she was ok…”

“Yes, Jean. She’s fine. I mean, cancer is fine so why wouldn’t she be ok?”

“No need to talk like that.”

I glared at him. “No need to show concern, asshole.” He didn’t reply so I went on with my job of shoving all my anger about everything—or anything—at him. “And what the fuck was that at lunch? You fucking kissed me!”

“I knew it would tease you, so yeah…”

“Well, you bet it teased enough for me to consider killing you. You know I hate that shit.”

We stopped at a red light and looked at me with a frown. “It’s not like you were less of a dick. And talking about dicks… don’t think you can just order me around, you piece of shit. Just so you know I came for respect of your mother. You don’t deserve a shit, Eren.”

I was getting angrier and angrier and that conversation didn’t make any sense. But still, our fights never really made sense. We were always just looking for something to blame on each other, that was all.

“It’s not my fault Annie got grounded and Mikasa decided taking our car was a good idea.”

He nodded and started driving again. “So now you’re blaming Mikasa…”

That made me drop my jaw and stop. I actually had no idea of who I was blaming anymore so I just kept quiet and hoped Jean would do so as well. I spent the rest of the trip contemplating the words _a silence of death_ before he parked right in front of my house and waited for me to either just leave or say something. I opted to stay quiet and not leave.

He sighed and looked over at me. “In case you haven’t noticed, that’s your building.”

I glared at him. “I know that’s my building. I am not dumb, alright?”

He shrugged. “You could just be spacing out. Wouldn’t be the first time…”

Another moment of silence and I took my time to consider a lot of things. My anger wasn’t gone and the more I thought about it the more clueless I was about why was I even angry in the first place. Well, maybe it was just a bunch of things and I had reached my limit. And then, there was still Jean and his… _Oh_.

He was tapping some rhythm on the wheel when I pinched his arm. “What?”

“Come on. Get out and come with me.”

“Go with you _where_?”

I got out of the car and threw him a look. “Up, to my house. Where would you think?”

He blinked at me. “I don’t know, Eren… Mikasa is—”

“Having fun in a gothic concert that ends around five in the morning if we consider the after party... So yeah, just come along. Weren’t you the one requesting a payback?”

His face of realization almost made me laugh and I was glad he spared me a blunt explanation and just came along. It’s not like I was into it, but I wasn’t not into it either. Both were fine by me. Even though I hated Jean it’s not like he was a bad fuck. It was probably the only thing I thought he was good at, besides annoying my brains.

Nice, so two things crossed my mind on the way up. One, I’d kick Jean’s ass once we were inside, he’d fight back, we’d destroy the house together and then I’d storm on him until he decided to jump through a window. That was a way to vent my anger. Two, we’d get there, do the usual, fuck and then he’d leave with that disgusting feeling of touching me he says he gets every time we do it—even though we keep doing it nonetheless—and I would be left in a peaceful state.

Of course I opted for the second one. The first brought a lot of complications along.

I threw my jacket on the sofa once we got in. Jean closed the door and followed me into the living room. He’d been there a couple of times so I tried not to get even more upset at the fact that he seemed too comfortable for his own good.

“You want something to drink?” I asked him while I turned on the TV.

He shrugged and sat down on the sofa. “Whatever you wanna offer.”

Our living room was right after the main hall, first door on the right. The kitchen was the door on the left and the door in front lead to the bedrooms’ hall. I went to the kitchen and opened the fridge to take a look at what we had there. However, besides some homemade sweet iced tea from Mikasa and some beer, we had nothing else. I guessed Jean would mind a beer so that’s what I took out for him—and me as well, of course.

I got back to the living room sat on the sofa next to him and passed him his share.

“Thanks.”

“Hm.”

My eyes were craved on the screen but I had no idea what was airing. It’s not like I was really paying attention to that. We stayed quiet for a while until our bottles were empty. It’s not like it was an awkward silence, I actually liked that silence, but Jean had to break it, as usual.

“So why are you so upset?” He asked me, taking the empty jug out of my hands. “Not like you’re not always mad, because you’re always angry about something… But why did you exactly decide you wanted me to come?”

I blinked, slowly, and then rolled my eyes to him. “Because I am angry.”

Jean nodded. “I get that. Still…? Look, it’s not like I don’t appreciate the thought, but we should start considering—”

I knew what he was going to say. It wasn’t the first time the conversation slipped into that, but I didn’t really want to think about anything else so I just shoved a hand at his mouth and glared. Not like my intimidation would work on him, it didn’t work like that. Still, I knew that between us both, glares of rage would always be taken as a challenge. So that’s why when he stared back, trying to fix me with a look, I got both my feet above the sofa and crawled up above him, slowly making him lean down with my hand still pressed on his mouth.

“You know…” I started, almost growling. “You’re so much better when you just shut the fuck up. If you have any problems about this then don’t even come in the first place.”

He just rolled his eyes and grabbed my wrist to take my hand away. “Goddamn it, Eren. I have no idea… whatever, just forget I said anything.” A sigh came out of his mouth and I raised him a brow. “Sometimes you just sound like some maniac…” He finally finished.

I blinked quite hard. “Right… At least I don’t walk around killing people. You should be glad about that; you’d be the first one I’d murder.” My head almost fell between his shoulder and his neck. I tried not to consider his stupid perfume and just dug my teeth on his skin gaining a hiss in response.

“Damn, what the fuck… You’re an ass…” He was saying that but his hands were already under my shirt, trying to make me get rid of it. Of course I wouldn’t make that job easy.

Without waiting any longer I just shoved a hand at his crotch and palmed him. Not like I’d waste any ministrations on him. Plus, I knew Jean was by far more worried about his own pleasure than mine, so I could just hurry at making him ready and just take it in instead of waiting for him to do something about me.

His hand came up to my neck. I had no idea of what he was going to do until I felt his fist grab my hair, pulling it enough so he could get up and shove me down instead. I gasped at that and fell on my back before I could show him a scowl.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Eren…” He seemed annoyed. Well, I wasn’t any happier than he was so I contorted my face. He replied with the exact same expression, but this time he simply went for my belt, undoing it faster than I ever though was even possible.

I stared at his actions for a while, jaw dropped. Was Jean getting better at this and I had no idea? Not like it was any of my business whatever he was studying or practicing at home, but if he was doing it with someone else I would like to know. I didn’t want any diseases on me. However, there was a hand on my forehead shoving my head down before I could voice anything out.

Pulling off my jeans in one easy movement, Jean stared down at me for a while. “Really? If I didn’t know you better I would say you wear the same boxers every single day. Can’t you just pick another color?”

“Oh, shut the fuck up.”

The good thing about Jean was that he would get an erection just from the thought of sex itself. As for me, I required a bit more of work, something Jean wouldn’t give himself the trouble of doing. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy sex, I did. But we were just… I don’t even know. I guess we were just not compatible at all, but it still did the job.

I grabbed him by his sweater and pulled him down to me. His erection brushed against the inner side of my leg and he groaned. I just rolled my eyes and threw my hand at his crotch again, this time undoing his belt as well.

Jean shot me a look and whined something I couldn’t understand in an attempt to thrust his hips down at my hands. This was clearly all one sided, but whatever. I wrapped my hand around his length still covered by his underwear and gave it a few slow strokes. Meanwhile, he seemed busy trying to get me rid out of my boxers. I wasn’t making that one easy either. I wasn’t even hard to start with so I had no idea about what he wanted to— _Shit_.

Quicker than I thought he would, Jean grabbed my dick and leaned down giving it a lick from bottom to top. I threw my head back and shivered. What the fuck was he doing?

“Did that work?” He asked me after a while.

There was that strange numb feeling in my abdomen. Yes, it had worked. “What the fuck was that? Are you giving me a blow job?”

He shrugged and opened his mouth around my member. I had to avert my eyes. Look somewhere else and think it was not him. I thought about Beyoncé, but fuck it, she was not my type. I thought of Shakira… That was a turn off. I had no one to think about because they were all girls and I didn’t have the guts to imagine a famous guy with his mouth around my cock. _Fuck my life!_

“Shit…” Even so, even without anyone to think about, that made me horny as fuck. I wanted to find a hole and hide myself in it. Jean Dickstein was giving me a fucking blow job and, sweet Jesus, he was too good at it to be real. There was no way he could take it all in, but he was doing it. I wasn’t that big, alright, but I wasn’t small either! “H-hey… What the hell are you doing, you assface?”

His head went down one more time taking my whole length into his mouth and then back up as he sucked at it, taking his time when he reached the tip. I died right there. That was even more embarrassing than sex itself. There was no way he was doing that. Still…

“Alright I guess that’s enough.” Only then I noticed his hand around his cock. I hadn’t been moving for a while either. “Just trying something… It’s not that bad, though I won’t do it again so let’s just get the fuck done. Turn around.”

“Huh…?”

He glared at me. “Turn around, Eren. I wanna fuck you and leave.”

My hand slowly dragged along the cushion and then beneath it. The good thing about sharing chores while cleaning the house was that I could always be the one in charge of cleaning the living room. That lube was always there and Mikasa would never know.

I had the tiny bottle in my hand and looked at it for a few seconds before throwing it at Jean. “Ok. If you’re so much into trying new things you do that yourself.”

“What?!”

I grinned and turned around. “Trying new things, Jean… I won’t be here to teach you forever so take the chance, asshole.” That was just me taking advantage of things and turning the tables around. I wanted to feel some pleasuse and now that I wasn’t facing him it was easier to clear my mind and just concentrate on what was happening.

He growled but didn’t fight me on that. “Just so you know… since you’re always the one doing this shit, I have no idea of how—”

“One more reason for you to start learning.” I turned my ass to him. Normally, I’d be ashamed, but I just wanted him to hurry the fuck up. Our sex was never that kind of loving and long-lasting shit, so that was the point: doing it fast.

I had no idea what took him so long. Dumb as he was, he was probably just trying to find a way to open the bottle of lube. Still, a few seconds later, his hand was on my head, shoving it down on the sofa.

“Alright, stay there and don’t move!” He ordered.

At first Jean seemed a little hesitant. But then there was a finger, slowly, very slowly getting—“What the fuck, Jean… is this some kind of torture?” I raised my head to shout at him but he pressed it down on the cushion again.

“Shut up.”

I did, and tried to concentrate on the way he was killing me with such a slow motion. He had one finger inside me before he spoke again, while I was starting breathing hard into the feeling, open-mouthed while he twisted deeper into my body, still slowly as fuck.

“Now what…?” He deadpanned.

I gasped when he rubbed against some place I wasn’t expecting him to find. “Shit…”

“What?”

“Just—god, you suck at this! Is your dick one finger sized? I believe not!” My breath was itchy and I wanted to feel that again but that asshole…

Jean wasn’t one to feel bothered by my big mouth so he wasted no time in adding another finger. I tried to relax even though my brain kept telling me to do the opposite. I could feel the heat grow on my face as Jean paced up his movements and added a third—third? God, when I said his dick wasn’t one finger sized I didn’t mean it was three finger-sized.

“That’s quite enough…” I mumbled before he could go on.

Without another word, he removed his hand and threw his arm around my waist pulling me back to him and making me sit on my knees. His cock was poking at my entrance and I scowled. No words came out, though, because he was suddenly rubbing against my ass and I almost wanted to choke on my spit and die.

There was a shift and then another and then a hand in front of my face holding a condom.

“Open your mouth. Do something useful…” His voice was so deep I almost didn’t recognize him but I still did what he told me to do—not without a frown. I had no idea where he took that from but I was glad he didn’t forget about it.

He took the condom out right in front of me and then went back to what he was doing. I didn’t see the rest because I was facing him with my back.

Finally, he positioned himself behind me and started to put it in. I wanted to crawl, but he wouldn’t let me. I was trying to ease my breathing, but the sudden shiver of pain made me forget I had lungs and a brain to command them. His hands finally grabbed at my waist and in a sudden move he pulled me to him.

I made a weird sound, somewhere between _fuck_ and _shit_ , and had to close my mouth so I wouldn't droll down. It was all in.

As usual, Jean didn’t even wait for me to get used to the feeling—as I’d would do with him—and started moving the next second. A sharp and acute pain went up my spine and I tightened up in a way that made it hurt even more.

“Shit… Can’t you just wait a goddamn second? I could just decapitate you right now… I’ll fucking castrate you if you do that again!”

He breathed hard on my neck and I almost moaned at that. “Well, keep tightening up like that and you will indeed do it. I thought your ass was going to swallow my dick, you asshole.”

We stayed like that for a few seconds, just breathing out loud. When my head dropped between my shoulders, Jean took that as a sign and started moving again, pulling me up and down, setting the pace for me to start doing it on my own.

When his grip around my waist evened out, I crawled a bit knowing that like that he would please me the most. He moaned a bit at my sudden maneuver, but didn’t complain. My hand was around my cock, thrusting it at a fast pace, faster than I could move around Jean. That was enough to set my brain of fire. I bit my lower lip, trying not to moan, and craved my nails on his left arm. It wasn’t like us to leave marks on each other, but I really needed to release some of that pleasure into something, if not my voice, then his skin.

He hissed right behind my neck and that was it.

“Shit.” I growled as I fisted my hand around my cock, going for it with the other one so I wouldn’t just spread it everywhere.

Jean wasn’t far either. He was going faster and faster, rubbing against my spot and driving my orgasm longer than it would usually be when I worked on it by myself. Three thrusts later and he was done.

He pulled out and I was fast to reach for my boxers and run away from there into the bathroom. I washed my hands and cleaned myself before pissing the shit out of me. I don’t even know how I didn’t do with while we were at it. Then I dressed my boxers again and gave a look at the shower. I felt really dirty and I wanted to shower.

Jean entered the bathroom a few minutes later. He was washing his hands while I was taking a towel out of the wardrobe.

“Fuck.” He whined after a while. “Eyelashes, you're supposed to prevent shit from falling into my eyes. But when _you_ fall into my eye what am I supposed to do?”

I turned around, slowly, for the effect. “Are you talking to your lashes? How _eyeronic_...”

“Shut up… Now let me take a piss and head out of here. It’s already a quarter past seven.”

I shrugged and went to get my jeans and my belt that were sitting on the living room’s floor. I took the chance to look around and see if we messed up anything. Well, I didn’t, but Jean almost forgot to put the lube back in its rightful place: under the sofa.

When I left to the bathroom again, Jean passed by and patted my shoulder. “Bye. See you soon.” He mumbled.

I just sighed. “Don’t forget any of your shit in here. Bye.” And with that I closed the bathroom’s door and locked it.

I was certainly dazed out. I guess that was really the only good thing Jean and I did together, even though we still sucked at it pretty bad. Whatever, it was enough for me. Or almost enough, since I knew there was something very important missing, but I didn’t want to worry about it. I just wanted to take a stupid shower, order a pizza and watch Star Wars until Mikasa got home. Then, I’d stumble to bed and sleep until 1pm from Sunday. That sounded like a good plan.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Introducing Armin and Erwin in this tiny chapter. Not much happens, it's all pretty much around my OT3 bros (Eren-Armin-Mikasa). Levi is indeed mentioned and he will indeed show up in the next chapter. Still, I guess we all know Eren got the wrong impression about him. Let's hope he's not too surprised about it later on.
> 
> Also, do you have any good ideas to what kind of job would suit Eren the most? If you do, let me know <3
> 
> As for the flowers and their meanings:
> 
> Fennel flower = strength  
> Lucerne flower = life

When I woke up that morning my drool was all over the sofa’s pillow. I had no idea why in the world I was sleeping on the sofa. Mikasa couldn’t be home or she would have woken me up or taken me to bed herself if I failed to respond her calls. It was pretty cold and, before I discovered I was only wearing a t-shirt and some boxers without a blanket above my body, I kept shivering for a while without moving my ass away.

Once I finally decided to get up, my eyes instantly rolled to the window. The sky had this weird grey color that was slowly fading into a baby yellow. That was definitely the sunrise.

My hand slowly went up my shirt and I started scratching my chest while a loud yawn escaped my lips. Basically, my brain was not functioning quite well, yet, but I could tell it was already a spoiled Sunday. Who wakes up so early at a Sunday, anyway?

My stomach growled and that was the hint for me to head to the kitchen. My feet kept complaining about the cold ground, but I was too lazy to go get some socks or pants. By surprise, though, once I entered the kitchen, my eyes landed on Mikasa’s back. She was seating and leaning over the table, still dressed for the concert. My eyes wavered to the clock on the wall. 6 o’clock.

I got closer and went around the table, eyes still on her and hand still up my shirt. “Mikasa…?”

She didn’t reply. Her head was between her crossed arms. My heart raced for a second.

“Hey, Mikasa… Are you dead?”

There was a grunt and she slowly raised her head. “No… Not yet.”

I sighed in relief. I don’t even know what I was relieved about, though. “God, don’t scare me. At least say something.”

“Something.”

I rolled my eyes at her and decided it was better to ignore it. The fridge was right there next to me so I didn’t have to move much more to go get the milk and the cereals from the counter right next to it. I also grabbed a bowl from the shelve, and a spoon, before sitting down in front of my sister. She was looking at me, probably wondering when I was going to trip and let everything fall on the floor. That was also when I noticed she had her earphones on.

“What the hell are you listening to at six in the morning?” I asked, brows furrowed, while I prepared my breakfast.

“ _Every Breath You Take_ by The Police.”

I blinked quite hard at her. That was mom’s favorite song and we both knew that well enough. “Why are you listening to that?”

Mikasa shrugged. “No reason. And why didn’t you text me like I asked you to?”

I took a full spoon full of cereal to my mouth and craved my sleepy eyes on her. As I munched, slowly, she kept eyeing me with a blank expression I couldn’t read. I tried to express the exact same thing, but I wasn’t good at being expressionless.

“I forgot.”

“You forgot.” She repeated with a nod. “Ok. Who brought you home?”

“Jean did.” I had to avert my eyes when I saw hers widen. She knew we didn’t have a close relationship at all so that was probably a hard thing to believe. I was quick to explain it, though. “Considering I wanted to get home alive, I asked him. Connie drives like crazy and it’s not like Armin has a license…” I trailed off.

Mikasa nodded again and I took the chance of a promised silence to eat my cereals as fast as I could. Once I finished, I threw the bowl in the sink and stared at it for quite a while before deciding to put the milk back in the fridge and head to my room. However, before leaving, I stopped by the door and looked back.

“Is everything alright?”

“Everything is fine. Be ready around 3 o’clock. We’re going to visit mom.”

I didn’t say anything else and just left to my room, throwing myself on the bed and covering my body with a blanket. I had no idea how much time it took me, but I fell asleep for a second time.

When I opened my eyes again, though, it was because I felt a strange presence on my bed. I shifted a bit before turning to face the wall, facing Armin and his big blue eyes instead. We were so close our noses touched, but I didn’t lean back. My brows furrowed a bit and he just grinned at me in that teasing way of his.

Armin was my best friend. We’d been together in school since we both could remember. He was this kind of smartass kid who makes you proud to have as a friend. I trusted him all my worries and he did the same with me—or I thought he did. Armin was one of the friends I treasured the most. He was my reasoning and I was his boldness. That was how we completed each other in a very brotherly way.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

He brushed our noses together and then sat down on the bed. “I was bored so I decided to pass by. Mikasa opened the door for me and well… Lucky! You hadn’t locked the door tonight. What happened? Did you get back home late?”

I growled and rolled to face the ceiling. “No… I actually just fell asleep on the sofa.” A pause as I recalled exactly what had happened last night. “Star Wars.”

“Which one?” He turned while smiling widely at me.

“The Phantom Menace.”

Armin pinched my leg through the blanket and jumped out of my bed to sit on the chair by my desk. “Watching epic movies without me… I won’t forgive you…”

I sighed and got up to look for my mobile phone. It was under my pillow so it still took me a while to consider it was probably there. Once I finally got it, I checked the time. Almost 12pm. Mikasa had told me to be ready at 3pm so that meant I still had three hours to laze around. Armin was watching me from afar while I lazily hauled myself out of my nest.

“Did you meet Jean last night?” It was almost a whisper but it made me trip on my way to the wardrobe. “Wow, don’t panic…” He was almost laughing at my clumsy reaction.

“What…? Why do you ask?” Denying that would be impossible. Armin could see through my lies faster than anyone else.

He shrugged. “He was playing LOL with us yesterday and then said he couldn’t play the next game because he had to leave. And it’s not like you to sleep in the living room unless you are really tired… especially _not_ watching Star Wars.”

I glared at him while my hand searched for some other t-shirt between the insides of my messy wardrobe. “Since when do you play League of Legends?”

“Since that Jinx’s music video came out. I decided to give it a second chance after that.”

“What? What music video?”

He gave me a concerned look for a while and I frowned. I knew what was going through his head. There was something he knew I didn’t. I hated that feeling and he loved to enjoy those moments, for much of my annoyance. His eyes just rolled across my desk to my laptop and then shifted back at me. I told him that _yes_ he so needed with a nod and that was all he wanted from me before he jumped to face the desk and open the computer.

“Oh my god, Eren… I can’t believe you really don’t even go into the website anymore.”

I sighed. “I just stopped playing. That’s all.” Meanwhile, I took that chance to get dressed. Not like Armin made me feel uncomfortable, but hated to have all the eyes on me. It was probably one of the things that made me have so many detentions during high school. I’d kick someone’s ass if they were looking too hard.

“God, Eren… I hate your internet.” Armin snapped after a while.

“Shut up about my internet!” I threw back.

He threw both his hands up. “YouTube is not loading!”

I rolled my eyes and left him alone with his whines while I went to brush my teeth and take a piss. When I got back, though, he was looking at me with a grin; hands held together above his chin, legs crossed. I got closer as if that was an invitation and he rolled on my chair with a motion of his hand only to present me to a full black screen. I stared for a while before remembering I probably had to press play, and so I did.

This weird noise started and I leaned back as my eyes craved themselves on the Riot Games logo. I had no idea what would come out of there, but my mouth quickly dropped at the perfect animation. I wanted to look at Armin but at the same time I didn’t want to miss a detail of what was going on. When the music started, I couldn’t help but grin. That teaser was nothing but destruction. I didn’t need to read the new Champion’s description to understand her character. Nope, everything was right there.

“Oh shit, I love when they do these…” My eyes finally averted to Armin when the video clip was over. “Cinematic trailers are the best promotions ever. Jinx, was it?”

He nodded. “Jinx. Jean kept saying that she was his stereotype of girl. Though, Connie said he still preferred Vi.” Jean’s stereotype of _girl_ was Marco, but I guessed Armin would never know that—unless things went cool for Jean. “But well, to each one his type.”

I laughed and leaned to my computer to save that page on my favorites. “Any especial abilities? She’s cute. And wow, that song… I loved the song.”

“Yeah, the song is pretty cool. Not really my thing, but still cool.”

I grinned back at him. “Oh, right, Mr. Classical Music.”

Armin tried to punch my arm but I dodged. “Says the guy who listens to Rise Against all the time. Really, can’t you just enjoy some calm music?”

“Like what, that alternative shit you listen to? And please, don’t say Rise Against suck. They are more epic than that Chronicles of Narnia thing you were showing me the other day.”

He hid his face in his hands. “Oh my god, I keep forgetting my best friend is a dick sometimes… What should I do?” He questioned dramatically.

“Oh, shut up. You love me so much…” I trailed off with a grin.

“I love you to the point of not being able to stand you.”

I went quiet for a while, really thinking about what he said. “Yeah… That’s actually quite fair.”

“I know. Anyway… abilities, yeah. She’s got this speed thing that is quite impressive. Wait, there’s a video about that…”

When games were at hand, I was usually the one telling Armin about how epic this or that character were. It was quite a nostalgic feeling, just sitting there and talking about nothing in particular but the things we liked. Still, this time, he was the one showing me around.

He was done talking after a while, but silence never came when it was up to us both. I quickly got up and asked him if he wanted to try and cook something for lunch. He told me that would be quite the experience, but then again, why not? Besides, Mikasa was still in her room and she wouldn’t be around complaining at us and trying to eat our fun away, so that would be cool.

Both of us rushed to the kitchen and started looking into some old books mom had with recipes. Most of them were about Italian food. Mom always loved Italian and she was an amazing cook, so most of our dishes would have her own touch, of course.

Armin went to check for ingredients and found some wicked stuff, like dried tomatoes and other weird things I never thought I’d eaten before, even though I had. It was weird and took us a while, but we finally got started.

“This calls for some music.” I mumbled a few minutes later.

He took a peek at me. “Sure… Just don’t throw _Satellite_ on me again or I will kill you.”

“I told you not to criticize my favorite band before, didn’t I? Rise Against are cool.”

He shrugged and I went to get my phone and my portable stereo. Armin almost laughed when he saw me close all the doors just in case Mikasa was going through some light sleep.

“Ok, you wanna dance or what?” I asked him.

“Dance…?” His brow rose at me. “Eren Jäger, are you asking me on a dance? How very gay of you...” He laughed and I almost did too.

“Shut up and pay attention to that water. It’s boiling like crazy, Armin.”

He turned to lower the heat. “Do I put the sault now?”

“Yeah, do it. Mom always did it after the water was boiling, though, I don’t know why…” Within a few seconds, my phone was connected to the sound system. I took a look at my playlists, trying to find something that would please both of us. “Is Pearl Jam cool with you?”

“No. Don’t even try, I can’t like… I just can’t like that band.”

“You suck.” I kept going down the list. It was hard to pick a good song when both of us had so different tastes when it came down to music. “You should be glad I don’t have my phone full of Madonna, or Britney, or Beyoncé…” He knew I was talking about Jean, so no more comments were made about that subject. “Oh, wow… Armin, James Arthur! Is that cool with you?”

He laughed so hard it almost made me laugh too. “Blast that out, Eren!” He ended up saying.

I turned that one on and rushed next to him. Figuring out how much it took some pasta to cook took us quite the time since those annotations were made by mom herself and her handwriting was smaller than I thought someone could write in.

“ _You’re nobody ‘til somebody loves you…_ ” Armin sang along as he chopped some onions and cried like a weirdo. “ _It’s hard times when nobody wants you. Fill up my cup; don’t ever stop coming. Get up on top; we’ll make it hard running_.”

I wrinkled my nose at him. “Oh, shit. You sound like a depressed housewife!”

“This sure is some One Direction kind of thing…” He trailed off, half laughing half crying.

I waved my hand at him. “No, that would be a teenager with sexual deprivation.”

“I am not a teenager with sexual deprivation. I am an adult with sexual deprivation. Tell me what’s worse because I don’t know.”

I poured the whole package of pasta into the pot. “I think the worst is you admitting that you are deprived of sex. Just keep that to yourself, Armin.”

Twenty minutes later, lunch was served. We even gave ourselves the trouble of arranging the whole table for the three of us. I guess both Armin and I knew Mikasa was depressed for some reason so we both agreed silently that doing that would be a good thing for a change. Of course, we would have to clean the whole thing later on as well or it would mean nothing since she would blame us for dirtying unnecessary tableware.

I crawled into her room, slowly and quietly so I wouldn’t wake her up with any weird or sudden move of mine. Mikasa’s room was the tiniest of the rooms in our house, but she didn’t seem to mind it. It was also the fullest room. She had these posters all over the walls—some of them frightened the hell out of me and I wondered how she could get dressed with so many eyes on her, but whatever.

Sitting on her bed, I noticed she was wrapped in more than a blanket. “Hey… Sleeping beauty…?” She didn’t reply so I just leaned down next to her. “Mikasa…” I whispered again. “Mikasa Ackerman, the Punk Dracula…” She wasn’t down to earth yet. “Mikasa…” I grinned and took the next step. “Mikasa, Jean was over last night and we fucked on the sofa.”

“What?!” Her voice raised quite the octave at that and she almost threw me out of the bed when she turned to look at me. “What the hell did you do on _my_ sofa?” She growled. “And what? You fucked Jean?” It was actually the other way around but she didn’t need to know that part. “What the hell is wrong with you, Eren? Don’t joke with that.”

I just kept a grin on my face. “Moody…” I trailed off and she kept her eyes on me. “Come on, get up. It’s 1 o’clock and you need to see the sun. We made lunch.”

Mikasa blinked quite hard at me. “You made lunch?”

“Yeah, Mikasa. We cooked. Come on!”

The look on my sister’s face was quite worth the trouble of crying over onions. Armin and I couldn’t help but grin widely at each other for sparkling up her mood. We ate and, then, while Mikasa took a quick shower and got ready, both of us washed the dishes and got the kitchen back into its normal state as quickly as we could. I had finally convinced Armin to listen to some Rise Against and choose him a lovely song named _Swing Life Away_. He admitted it was a cool song and I left it on while we were at our cleaning duties.

We left the house exactly at 3 o’clock. Armin decided he’d come along. He also told us about some new flower shop he’d discovered that was closer to our house than the one we’d go to all the time. He mentioned these perfect bouquets standing outside the shop and he was right, because the first thing I noticed when Mikasa parked our Honda right in front of the store were the beautiful and colorful arrangements of flowers sitting outside.

I was the first to get out and rush to check it out. Freiheit Flowers was the name of the shop. I tried to remember where I’d heard that word before, but I couldn’t. Armin later told me it was the word _freedom_ in German.

The first thing that came to notice when we got inside was the perfume coming out from the plants in the room. There were thousands of flowers sitting across the floor, all of them with prices stamped on their big jars.

“It’s quite a nice shop…” Mikasa said after a while.

Armin chuckled. “I told _ya_!”

I still couldn’t take my eyes out of the beautiful bouquets all around me. Some were particularly colorful, others not really. The ones with only one type of flower were scarce and I wondered why that would be.

Suddenly, a tall man with blonde hair and some really deep gaze walked in from a door in one of the corners of the store. There was a kind smile spreading across his features once he landed his eyes on us. “How can I help you?” He asked in a strong, deep but shallow voice. I’d never heard such a tone before.

Armin was the first to react, as usual, while Mikasa and I were still dressing on our defensive armor. Me more than her, of course…

“Good afternoon,” Armin started, “we were just looking around, but we would also like to get some flowers to offer to a sick person…” He trailed off as he gave me a look, but then his eyes shifted back to the man in front of us. “She’s in the hospital.”

The blonde man looked around for a while, concern showing all around his face. “Sick person? I see. Is she a friend?”

My eyes went down his chest, stopping at his nametag. His name was Erwin. “She’s my mother.” I quickly added, earning a frown from Mikasa. “Our mother…” I quickly corrected.

At my answer, Erwin’s eyes quickly landed on me and he seemed to be studying every inch of my body before throwing us all a soft smile. “I see. And do you have anything in mind? Is the lady allergic to something?”

I had to admit he was pretty good at selling his character. Maybe because I was always so cautious around everyone, I was not half bad at getting people. That guy seemed quite the story, the type that is there, but not quite. The way he called my mother was quite the way to convince us he was polite and not just any kind ass. His soft and concerned smiles, though, kept changing between warmth and a cold distant personality. And there was something about him that kept reminding me of Armin for a while, and I swear it wasn’t the hair—that one was not even close.

“She’s not allergic.” Mikasa replied with soft voice and distant stare. “But we’d like something with color. The hospital’s room is a bit too white.”

Erwin agreed with a nod. “I understand. Is there any flower she likes in particular?” He was starting to move around the place, looking through the big vases.

“She liked Fennels the most.” I mumbled and the man stopped to catch my eye.

“Fennels?” Finally a warm smile was shown. “I see. And I can assume you don’t have much money with you right now, isn’t that right?”

I was offended by the sudden intrusion, but Armin was quick to admit to it before I could start throwing tantrums at the unknown man. I hated when people commented on my poor social status, considering how hard my father worked for us and how we couldn’t stand much money around for a long time since mom was in the hospital. That made the thought of me finding a job jump right to the front of my priorities. I would definitely do it.

“Very well, let me tell you what I considered.” Erwin said with a straight face. “I could arrange you something, a small piece, with two types of flowers, maybe two branches of Fennels entwined with some Lucernes…?”

We all exchanged a few looks before shrugging. Erwin chuckled and started to walk towards a big vase of some tiny yet beautiful purple flowers. He picked a few up and brought them closer to us so we could all take a look.

“Lucerne, it’s a pretty flower and I think it fits yellow of the Fennels. I will add some green to it, don’t worry. And as matter of money since it’s a small arrangement, it won’t be neither more nor less than 3 euros.”

That was actually quite cheap. The flower shop we used to visit was so expensive sometimes we could only bring a flower per week.

“Isn’t that a really low price?” Armin questioned, probably as curious as I was.

Erwin laughed softly and went to grab the yellow fennels standing almost by the balcony. “No really, young one… I have to make up for the highly priced bouquets we sell in here, so of course it is alright. Do not worry.” There was a small joint of joy and sadness in his tone, I could notice it.

I looked around at the bouquets again. They were indeed beautiful.

“Did you make them, the bouquets?” Armin asked. Finally, someone asked.

Erwin gave him a look before getting back to work on our arrangement. “No. Those were made by another employee of mine. He has a degree in the art of flower arranging. He’s quite good at what he does. My best employee, if I might add.”

“They are indeed pretty.”

“They are. And all of them have a meaning. He’s an expert in floriography.”

I blinked. “Floriography?” I felt strangled when Erwin’s strong gaze shifted to me for a while.

“The meaning of flowers…” He answered.

Oh, right. The meaning of flowers… Mom used to talk about that. I knew flowers had a meaning because she always said so. Not like I knew their meanings, but I knew they existed. I just never guessed someone would give importance to such simple things, though.

A feeling of curiosity sprang across my eyes and I was sure Armin noticed it because he was looking straight at me as I came closer to the balcony. “How expensive are those bouquets?”

The blonde man gave me another look before replying. “Depends… Some of them are around 50 euros, some are less expensive, and some are more luxurious. Levi can work something out depending on your request, but I doubt the price will go lower than those lovable 30 euros of his.” He almost laughed when he finished.

I had no idea of what to think. Probably that so called Levi, I remembered, was just one of those pricks with amazing skills who loved to brag about his self. That would explain the way Erwin had reacted. Levi would probably be the worst kind of person ever, those who only cared about money and nothing less. Meaning, he’d be under Jean on my list.

Suddenly, I wasn’t interested anymore. Still, I was almost certain mom would love to receive such a pretty set of flowers. Maybe I’d pass by next week and see if I could talk my way around into getting a cheaper one. Not that I was as good with words as Armin was, but I would still try. It was all worth the trouble, after all. Mom would be delighted.

“Alright, done!” Erwin exclaimed as he sprung a bit of water into the flowers to make them shinier. “Do you like it?” He asked.

I think we all smiled at the tiny yet beautiful arrangement of yellow and purple Erwin had made for us. Armin was the one to grab it and pass it on to me while Mikasa stepped forward to pay.

Already in the car, while both of them kept discussing the few they knew about flowers, I leaned back on my seat, holding the flower bouquet closer to me, letting my mind drift off for a bit. A sudden wave of thoughts rumbled into my head, but I did nothing to stop it. Only when the sudden imagine of Jean blowing me after the topic of sex crossed my mind, made me jerk my knee and shiver before looking at Mikasa and her strict driving as a way of distraction. There was no helping it, it was disgusting and I felt like vomiting. Not because it was a blow job but because it was Jean and it felt quite good, for much of my annoyance.

When we finally got into the hospital’s parking lot, I passed the flowers to Armin. It was a usual procedure of ours, since I had this tendency to find trouble every time I was carrying something important or expensive in my hands. Be it the times I bumped into someone else, crushing the flowers on the ground and getting into a fight right in the next second; or the times I was so caught up in my own thoughts I was almost ran over by a car and ended up breaking the jar that was supposed to hold the flowers Mikasa would bring later on. All those times, something had happened. Armin and Mikasa wouldn’t trust anything of importance to me anymore.

We entered the building and caught the elevator just in time before it closed. The third floor was almost empty compared to the entrance of the hospital. Armin kept humming some song while Mikasa went to inform the nurse by the counter who would be visiting room 350. Only then I received the flowers back in my hands.

Mom was asleep when we got in, of course. I hurried to change the water from the jar and put the new tiny bouquet in it before putting it back in its place. Meanwhile, Mikasa was talking about how good her school year was going for starters. She was making this double degree in economics and computer engineering. I knew she was quite the dedicated student, but that always seemed a bit extreme. Still, if she was cool then I was cool too. Armin was quiet for the whole time, only smiling gently at what either I or Mikasa would fill in the silence of the room.

It wasn’t hard for me to believe the expressions mom would throw at us as we talked. It wasn’t hard to guess what she would say or do. I could see her quite mad at the fact I was basically a nobody and starting to compare me to Mikasa who seems to be doing my share as well.

That was the thought I kept in mind for the rest of the day until we got home after dropping off Armin at his grandfather’s place.

“What kind of job do you think would be good for me?” I asked as I closed the car’s door.

Mikasa, who was grabbing her things from the back seats, was quick to raise her head and throw me a surprised look. “I don’t know. Why?”

I shrugged. “I was just thinking I should really get a job.”

She closed the vehicle’s door and locked it. “You really should. Have you considered anything?”

“No, not really… I don’t even know where to start looking for it…”

“Internet?”

“Too vague.” I snapped, waving my hand in front of my head.

“Or maybe you’re just too lazy.”

The first thing I did when I entered the apartment was to race with Mikasa to see who would be the first to use the bathroom. Of course she won, basically lopping me around and leaving me facing the ceiling without understanding how that had happened in the first place.

I took the chance to check my phone seeing I had a new message. ‘ _I just realized that in a month it’s November and then my birthday. Are you and Mikasa free? It will be a Sunday and I kind of wanted to hang out for a while._ ’ Right, Armin’s birthday was on the 3rd November. Well, the only one who’d probably spend the day studying would be Mikasa, but I was sure she’d take the day off to hang out with Armin on his birthday.

“Mikasa, reserve the 3rd November for Armin…” I trailed off out loud.

“What? Why?” She yelled through the bathroom’s door.

“Armin’s birthday…”

“Oh, right. We should get him something.”

“What exactly?”

She opened the door and looked down at me before grinning. “You look good down there.”

I grinned back. “I am quite good, thank you.” A pause. “So? What do we get him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe some clothes? He has trouble affording those.”

“Right.” I got up in a jump, using my left arm to help. “What’s for dinner, by the way?” Now it was my turn to use the bathroom. I didn’t close the door, though, and Mikasa slammed it the moment I unzipped my pants. I chuckled.

“I really don’t know.” I heard her from the other side of the door. “We need to go shopping, actually. There’s a lot of stuff we need to buy.”

When I was done, I washed my hands and joined her back in the room’s hall. “Wanna go now? There’s that supermarket about fifteen minutes away from here.”

Mikasa looked at me, blank expression for a while. “Ok. Want to try and do something hardcore like what you and Armin did?”

A faint smile covered my face. “Did that set you on?”

She threw her arm around my shoulders and grabbed her bag again. “It turned me on, Eren. It turned me on. Now grab your things. Let’s go for a walk.”

I was glad she was in a good mood. We went to the supermarket and bough whatever we thought was necessary. Mikasa reminded me to bring a list next time we did that, since I would pretty much fill the car with almost anything and she had to keep taking things out of it.

“Let’s make Risotto for dinner.” I offered.

“Ok.”

Three hours later, I was reclining on my bed. My mind was set on the thought I had been contemplating before. I really needed a job and I would have to get one.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is not as good as I wanted it to be, but Suzu aproves so bleh with with. Anyway, here there are, what, five new characters. Levi finally shows up, along with Hanji, of course. The smut at the end is not really a hardcore thing, but not everything needs to be hardcore. Well, I guess this gives an idea of what will be at hand for the next couple of chapters: Levi and Eren's relationship starts growing; Jean and Eren keep at it for a while more (so do expect sex); Eren is a mess because life; a bit more insight into Mikasa and her closed up self.
> 
> Now I will go hang myself. Maybe that will improve my writing skills.
> 
> Oh, and... the quantity of flowers, or of a certain flower, does matter sometimes, please take that into consideration. The color can be meaningful as well and that's why some flowers have multiple meanings.
> 
> As for the flowers and their meanings:
> 
> Currant flower = thankfulness  
> Daisy flower (2x) = affection  
> Japan roses = gratitude

It had been a troublesome week. Finding a job wasn’t easy and I was glad Jean offered me some help. He said there was someone who owed him favors and so he could ask them to let me work at their establishment. Then, there was mom. On a late-night visit Mikasa and I paid to the hospital, the doctors informed us they’d be waking up our mother on Saturday night. Of course we were happy, at first. Waking her up meant her vitals were better. Anyone would be happy about it, really. But then the bad part came along. I didn’t hear it all; Mikasa later explained it to me when we got home. I suppose I stormed a little bit, like usual, when they said our mother wouldn’t last long. Who gets better and doesn’t last? Doesn’t make any sense, right? But well, it seems, as they explained, getting better is part of it. It’s like the body is allowing us to live our last minutes to the fullest. Bullshit, I presume.

Dad was never home. For the past two years, _dad was never home_. I wanted to blame it on him for not noticing mom was getting sick. I wanted him to pay because it was happening. But that was just the easy way out, blaming something that is nobody’s fault on someone. We’re just weak. We’re fragile and we can’t save everybody. That’s it, we can’t save everybody.

Still, life goes on and we have to live with the pain. So spending a whole Friday night drinking beer and watching movies at Connie’s did strike me as a good idea. We’d gone from hardcore films like _A Nightmare On Elm’s Street_ to super depressive things like _Marley & Me_—blame Armin for making us cry drunk over a dog, he wanted to watch that movie—and we discussed things, like drunk people do—or not. We discussed each message we could find, because we were bombed and had nothing better to do.

I had my sixth beer between my hands and was holding it above my lap. Trying to read Armin’s lips, so I could understand what he was saying, was something I was having fun doing. Still, lucky for us, Armin didn’t roll his tongue at all. He was an example to follow. Connie, on the other hand, was having issues. Well, he _has_ issues. Armin was good, though.

“I don’t know, but—” He kept saying. “—a sexual identity problem…? I mean, do you have sexual identity problems?” Armin motioned his hands to me, arching his eyebrows just to look more dramatic. We’d been watching _Boys Don’t Cry_ and we were all seriously blown away by it. Armin insisted we discussed it. More like he forced the topic on us.

I raised both hands at him and rolled my eyes, actually feeling quite dizzy. “Wow… Just, wow… No. I am a man. I like being a man, I don’t want a…” I slid my hand down my shirt to my crotch and made a disgusted face. “A vagina…”

Connie cackled like crazy and threw his back on the ground. Well, there was no other way to say it. When you’re not a vaginas guy, you can’t force yourself to like them. Asses on the other hand, asses were a _thing_. And abs, oh goddamned be the one who said abs were respectable. And yes, shaking my head at the thought was _definitely_ ok.

Armin sighed and rolled his eyes. “So you don’t have sexual identity problems, but you’re gay. See, Connie? It’s different.”

“Says the guy doing a post-grade psychology degree...” Connie shot back.

“No. I knew that, I was just trying to find you an example. Plus, that’s not even the issue! What really gets me is not only how they dealt with the whole thing but that other girl, Lana…? She still believed her or… should I say him, Brandon—whatever—she still believed Brandon after all that. I don’t know if we can call that blindness, naivety, lack or self-awareness or—”

“Love.” I blurted out.

Armin stared at me, lips gapped as if he had been muted. He was fast at recovering, though. “I was going to say she knew there was a bigger problem at hand, but I guess that one fits better. Right… love.” A pause. “Do you believe in love, Eren?”

I was drunk, but I knew there was something else around that question that was invisible to the naked eye. That was just how Armin worked. “I do.”

“Bullshit…” Connie muffled.

Armin shot him a gawk but then returned to me. “Have you ever been in love?”

I didn’t need to give it much of a thought so my response was almost automatic. “Nope. You’d know if I was.”

“Then how can you believe in something you’ve never felt?” His lips curled up in that dorky way I knew so well and I couldn’t help but half-grin back at him.

I sighed and took a hand to my head so I could massage my temple. “There are… thousands of people in this fucked up planet who believe in God. I am absolutely sure that none have seen Him, yet they believe...” I pointed at him. “Now, believing is, I guess, just like hope. You told me the other day on the phone that hope is part of our being. Hope is a human condition and we only know it when we know despair. And well, the world brings despair. It’s the same with believing.” I shrugged and took a gulp from my can. “Just the same… A hopeless person cannot believe. We believe because we hope.”

“I should clap you right now…” He patted my shoulder. “I love when you’re a wise guy.”

Connie was staring at both of us, jaw-dropped. “I don’t understand because I am dumb, right?”

Armin and I exchanged a look and cracked laughing. “Yes, Connie…” we mumbled at the same time. “You’re dumb.”

“No, really… It still sounded deep, though.”

I took a few breaths before looking at Armin again. “And it’s the same with Lana. Brandon made her feel ok. So why not buy all the shit?”

“You mean believing a lie? _Living_ a lie?”

“No, Armin. I mean forgiving him. That’s what it is, I believe. Love is what makes you go through the problems and be ok with the person you like. I guess that’s what it is. But hey, I’m stuck to movies and _wise-ass-Armin_ philosophy, so who am I to brag…?”

Connie hummed for a while and then made a shape on an eight with his hands. “You forgot the physical attraction, Eren.”

I looked over at him, disapproval showing in my eyes. “No, Connie. I didn’t.”

“It’s like the main dish!”

“Actually, it’s _fifty-fifty_.”

We still discussed the whole thing on the way back—Armin and I, that is. We had to walk home because taking the car was out of question. We sobered up and got into a whole different type of seriousness. Those moments were great. I loved how Armin could be so mysterious about every little thing and how he enjoyed what he couldn’t understand. Life was a challenge, and watching him was always very inspiring. It made me head home with a smile on my face and a fresh mind set to face my own problems.

When I entered the apartment, I made my best not to make any loud sounds. I took a leak, brushed my teeth and rushed to bed after getting a pajama on. I closed my eyes and hoped the dude from the movie _A Nightmare On Elm's Street_ wouldn’t show up to cut me in half during my sleep, and then just drifted off—completely forgetting to take a big glass of water with me to drink over the night and waking up with a massive headache in the morning because of the vodka before the beers. Hangovers sucked, and so did alarm clocks.

Mikasa had made breakfast. Ever since Armin and I decided to use the kitchen she seemed to be pretty into it as well. I got into the kitchen between my usual procedures of scratching my chest under my shirt, and ducked into the fridge Mikasa had left open. I took out the orange juice she had probably done the day before and sat down in front of her on the other side of the table. My appetite grew the moment I checked my waffles.

“Good morning.” She greeted.

I made a quick nod with my head and dug down on my food as if it was going to disappear. Orange juice and waffles after a hangover; wow. Well, it was definitely better than tuna pasta as breakfast. I would never be able to forget that night. Sasha and her weird inventions…

“How was the gathering?”

I rolled my eyes up to my sister. “Nice.” Before going on, I stuffed my mouth with food and took a full gulp of juice. “But I gotta go get the car. Then I’ll pass by the flower shop and then I’ll come to get you so we can go.”

Mikasa stared at me for a while before replying. “Ok. I might take some money so we can eat something at the coffee shop. We’ll be there for the whole day so I might take some of my notes to study as well.”

“The hospital has a coffee shop?” Ridiculous, I had been there countless times and seen nothing besides a vending machine.

She nodded. “It does have one.”

There was a moment of silence in which she tried not to curl up her lips in a thin and cold smile that looked as dry as a rock, and I tried not to bring my eyebrows together in an attempt of sounding defensive. I knew she wanted to pick on me for not noticing, but we both knew that would bring up a terrible fight and we didn’t want that. Not on the day we were supposed to be all smiles for mom. _And talking about that…_

“What will we do about my job?” I asked once I finished my food. “It’s not like I _have_ a job.”

Mikasa frowned. “But you’re in the process of getting one, right?”

“Mindless self-indulgence… Of course I am. I told you, Jean is helping me out.”

“I never know if you’re joking or not when it’s about Jean. If I took you serious all the time then I’d believe you two actually got laid and that’s just… no. Plus, did you mean the band?”

I scowled at her. “Me and Jean? I hope you know that’s the most disgusting thing ever.” Well, what she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her, right? “And no, I didn’t mean the band. I meant the sentence as it is.” Knowing I wasn’t good at lying, I’d have to tell the truth anyway. That meant not denying it but telling exactly my thoughts. Because, considering it, Jean was a _no_. But well, he had a nice build up. Good to look at if you took off his head.

“Alright just take care of going to get the Honda and then we’ll talk about it on the way to the hospital. Sounds good?”

“Sounds good…” Didn’t take me much longer to finish my food, I was done before she was. “So I’ll just go and—”

“How drunk were you?” It was necessary to look at her with a certain heaviness to make her reformulate that question. “Did you… you know, drink a lot? You know I don’t like it when you do it…”

 _Here we go again, not in the mood for it today._ “Drank enough to get philosophical, but not enough to roll our tongues… You’re good?”

Unfortunately, she grinned quite blatantly at me. “You, getting philosophical…? I’m not buying that. Did they use sorcery on you?”

“Hey! I have my moments, ok?”

“Doubt it… but ok.”

She annoyed me to the point of making me explain to her the things that went by during last night’s conversations, only to have her nod at me with a plain smile at the end.

“Hope you listen to yourself. Let’s see if that’s just not a bunch a lyrics to some depressing band’s song.”

“Talking about bands…” I reminded myself as I got up. “Did you see my Pendulum CD? I was looking for it yesterday in the morning. You didn’t take it, did you?”

“Which album?”

“In Silico.”

“The only one I have with me is Immersion.”

I clicked my tongue and put my cup down. “Whatever. I’m going to get dressed.”

It was a rather warm morning. I still had a long way to walk up to Connie’s house to go get the Honda. _Wait For Me_ by Rise Against started blowing in my earphones the moment I turned the music on. I only noticed it had been on repeat when it replayed for like the fifth time.

The thing I liked the most about our district was that, despite the tall buildings, there were lots of gardens around. The grass had been trimmed that morning, I could tell by the smell. There weren’t many cars around so that meant less pollution. It was a nice stroll for a change, despite my headache and how the sun was making me melt and die on the sidewalk.

My car was parked right in front of Connie’s door. Once I caught a glimpse of it, I just ran to get inside and take cover from the murderous yellow light coming from above. I started the engine and took the car out of there, back down to our place. Couldn’t forget about the flower shop, though… I had decided just a week before I’d get mom one of those beautiful bouquets. They were as expensive as gold, but I was going to work like hell so I could get my hands on one.

The street was full of cars, so I had to park a bit farther from the shop. Still, wasn’t hard to feel the scent of fresh flowers coming from those gorgeous arrangements all over the entrance.

I was going to enter the place, but my eyes rolled down just in time to catch a full sight of a perfect round-y butt in a pair of dark slim jeans. I even felt my orbs wide up at the vision. Guess it wasn’t hard to notice it either because I suddenly gave out a strong breath I didn’t even know I was holding.

The guy blocking the entrance with his well-shaped ass got up after grabbing a few flowers from the ground and turned his head just slightly to look at me. He was small; I couldn’t help notice, really, really just short, shorter than the average short guy. However, there was something about the cold and dry way he was looking at me that made me contain my thoughts about his height. It was as if he could see right through me. We kept looking each other in eye, me just surprised as his gaze kept sharpening. I couldn’t help noticing his eyes were of a waterless gray, it only made him look colder.

“Hey, I told you to come over here!” When I rolled my orbs away from him, I noticed there was another person inside the shop. She was leaning by the balcony, hair up in a messy pony tail, glasses, and a sheepish smile all over her face. “I apologize, ok?” She kept saying.

The guy in front of me wasn’t looking anymore. His eyes seemed to be trying to shoot a beam at the brunette ahead of him. I was even more surprised when he talked. His voice was a complex of smoothness and coldness but still strong enough to pin me down. “I heard you, four-eyes.”

I stepped in once there was enough space for me to get in, but my efforts to find the blonde guy from before failed. Still, none of those guys was wearing a uniform or a nametag so I guessed they were just costumers as well.

“Come on, get over here.” The woman kept calling as the raven guy kept getting closer cautiously while entwining the flowers he had in his hands. I tried not to think about the fact those could have been picked up without any lead from Erwin and that the guy knew what he was doing. “This song is beautiful! I know, it’s old school, but I’m sure you know it!” She was holding an electronic tablet in her hands.

It wasn’t any of my business but I couldn’t help smiling just a bit when _Kids In America_ started playing. I was probably younger than them and I remembered that song, so of course that guy would have to know it as well. I still had my eyes craved on the flower jars, though.

Without taking his senses out of his flowers, I noticed by the corner of my eye, the guy replied. “That’s Kim Wilde, right?”

“Yup!” The brunette confirmed happily.

“The Cranberries were still better. Wilde always seems a bit dried out.”

“Glad it was you who noticed.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

I was surprised at his response, but when I turned my head, the brunette wasn’t any close to mad or upset. She was still smiling.

“Well, alright. Your turn.”

Finally, the guy rose his eyes up, but didn’t look at anyone in particular. “Hm, Djerv.”

“Song?”

“ _Madman_.”

“I don’t know that one.” The brunette recognized. And well, I didn’t either, but it sounded like something Mikasa would probably like. And I couldn’t be more right. The song was some sort of punk rock. I liked the singer’s voice, though.

There was silence for a while as the music played. The woman was sort of dancing along and I noticed the other guy kept tapping his feet in a very smooth way.

“I don’t know this band… girl… whatever. She’s cool, though. Definitely your stuff. She reminds me of Nina Hagen in a way.”

“Shut up, Hanji. Nina Hagen is a diva. And Djerv are known enough. At least among the new leads, I guess. Like for example…” He paused and then looked at me. The shift was so quick it almost made me jump and then blush when I realized I had been staring the whole time. “Hey, kid. How old are you?” There was a glint of annoyance in his voice.

I almost froze. Had to try out my voice before replying. “Ahm… I’m 21.”

He averted his eyes to his flowers again. “Do you play League Of Legends?”

My brows furrowed. “Not anymore, but used to. Why?”

A sigh came through his lips and I was surprised to see his face soften a bit. “If you heard about a certain music video for a blue haired character, Djerv recorded that song.”

“Oh, you mean… Jinx?”

His lips curled up just a tiny bit as he looked at Hanji, I supposed. “See?”

She shrugged and kept on checking other songs from that weird band. Some of them were pretty wicked, but after a few of them we all started to enjoy them by the second. Meanwhile, the raven guy had picked some really pretty red flowers and was spreading them around the other flowers he already had in hand. I guessed he would have to pay for those. And talking about that, Erwin was nowhere to be found, if that was his name, and I’d been there for almost fifteen minutes. I had long forgotten about my earphones and had no idea when I had taken them off and gotten a few centimeters closer to those two.

Finally, after a while, the raven guy held his own arrangement up the air. “Should I add… what exactly?” He asked as his head tilted to the side.

Hanji beamed when she saw it and I couldn’t help but find it pretty as well. It was a mix of white with pink and red. The fact that the red flowers were so tiny compared to the other ones was also pretty funny. No one said anything else, but the guy still turned to the balcony to grab some long green leaves and build a spinal for the bouquet. He curled the leaves back and once he was done tying them with a red rope, the arrangement looked like a dress.

“Wow, it’s beautiful…” I only noticed that was my voice when both of them turned to me. I was almost sure it had been only a thought, but there I was whispering it loud enough to be heard. “I mean… It’s… I mean, huh…” I blushed. “It’s nice.”

Hanji looked at me above her glasses and smiled like the devil. “I suppose you’re here looking for Erwin. What’s your name?”

I gulped, trying to forget why my face was burning. “Ahm, yes. I’m Eren… I mean, I wanted to buy something… and I need to leave soon…”

“Well, he had to go out for a while and we’re here to guard the shop. I can’t touch any kind of money, but Levi can help you out.” She elbowed the raven guy. “Are you listening, you prick? Eren, or whatever, has been here for a while now and you haven’t done your job.”

Had she said Levi? Wasn’t Levi the guy Erwin had spoken about last time I was there with Mikasa and Armin? Because if that guy was Levi then he was nothing like I had imagined and I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty for prejudging him like that.

“Hey. Do that again and you’re dead. I almost dropped the flowers on the ground.” He warned.

“Do your job!”

“It’s my day off, shitty-glasses.”

“You’re still here. Do your job.”

The supposed Levi sighed and gave me a quick look. The stare was exactly the same he’d given me the first time but now he was talking too. “Is there anything you want?”

“Flowers.” It came out faster than it should have and I soon regretted trying to be a smart-ass with a guy like him. I was almost sure I felt raped by his gaze. And Hanji only made it worse by snorting. I was really done with my life in that moment, but then the unexpected happened.

The short guy extended me the arrangement he had in his hands and gave me a scowl. “If it’s not for any fancy party or anything, you can take this once. It’s free.”

I blinked at him. “Free? But I didn’t—”

“Free because you have somewhere else to be at and I kept you waiting.” He raised the flowers in front of my nose and I had to step back or I’d sneeze.

Hanji got closer to take a look. “Two daisies, three japan roses and… are those currant flowers? How cliché, Levi.”

I picked the arrangement up and gave it a look. It was indeed pretty and smelled really good. “Thanks… But I really should pay something for this or—”

“Shut up.” Levi frowned even more and I froze, again. “Keep muttering and I will tax you double so just get the hell out of here before I change my mind.”

I raised a brow at him and he seemed surprised by it. It’s not like I was challenging his authority, but I wasn’t one to obey just like that either. “Thanks…” With that, I slowly started to step away, but I wasn’t even by the door when he called me again.

“Hey, kid.”

I turned, slowly.

He had his arms crossed and seemed a bit concerned. “What’s the occasion?”

I gave it a thought. It was hard for me to talk about it so I just kept it sort. “Hospital. My mother…” I trailed off and saw his orbs wide just for a second before he averted his gaze.

“Good. It’s a decent set, then.”

I thanked him one more time and left. The feeling of not wanting to get in trouble when I could actually just start a fight for no reason was a bit new to me, so of course I felt a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. I’d gotten into that store to grab a few flowers, day-dream about those expensive bouquets and leave. Instead, I was tackled with an employee working half-assed on his day off whom, to compensate me for his oblivion over the fact I could be a costumer, offered me a bouquet he’d just been working on for free. And then there was the fact that I’d misjudged Levi as an ugly punk with an ostensive love towards the opulent. Instead, I face a guy shorter than me, apparently hot, with an _I-don’t-give-a-fuck_ attitude but a preoccupied side deep down. And I say preoccupied because he wouldn’t ask me for the occasion if that wasn’t the case. Even if it was just his work about to be judged, doesn’t matter, it was still worry.

I got in the car and shoved my thoughts away. I still needed to go get Mikasa and head to the hospital, which happened in less than forty-five minutes because I was on a roll to get there.

“It’s a really beautiful bouquet.” She told me as I did the last maneuver to park our Honda. “How much did you pay for this?”

I turned off the engine and gave her a quick look. “It was free.” And with that I hauled myself out of the car. Mikasa followed suit.

The big clock by the entrance of the parking lot had just hit 1pm. We hurried to our mother’s room and replaced the flowers from last week for the new ones before going back down again to get something to eat. Mikasa was right. There was indeed a coffee shop by the back of the building. Actually, there were three of them but only one served meals big enough to satisfy us. She ordered a potato salad for both of us and a BBQ dog for herself. I ordered a Texas Style Chili Dog that made me regret not asking for a large sized iced tea.

“So, how come you got a free bouquet from such an expensive bouquet store?” Mikasa asked while I struggled to ease the hotness in my mouth.

“I don’t even know…” My mouth was really hot and talking was not one of my favorite things to do at that moment. Unfortunately, Mikasa was resolute to get every piece of information out of me. I had to throw something else at her. “Hey, do you know a band named… Djevy? Or was it Jerv…?”

“You mean Djerv.”

I raised my eyes to her and caught her pouting. “Yes, that…” I mumbled with a straw between my lips. “Do you like them? They’re pretty cool, right?”

Mikasa’s eyes sharpened at me. “Yes… they are… May I ask how you know about that band, though?”

“Oh, they sang for that video clip for LOL’s new champion.”

“I thought you didn’t play that anymore.”

“I don’t. But Armin does.”

She pursed her lips together for a while and then took a look at my food. I could tell by the look in her face she was telling to hurry up, and telling her I was eating slowly because that was spicy, wasn’t an excuse. I knew she’d say that I should have asked for something else. Then, we would fight, I would start hating her and the whole thing would be off for the rest of the day. I was glad to have years of experience with Mikasa to understand how things would end up at the slightest mistake.

Leaving food behind, however, was something only rich kids did. So I just grabbed my hot dog and followed Mikasa out after she paid, eating on the way to the park by the corner. Mom wouldn’t be awake for a whole day so while Mikasa revised her notes I just walked around for a while. Armin texted me a few minutes later and I was glad he did. Besides asking how I was about my hangover—which I had completely forgotten about since the flower shop incident—he also told me he was sorry for not being able to come along but that he’d visit the next day. We kept texting for a while until he said he’d go back to finish his homework and I was left wandering around alone.

An hour later and I was sitting on the chair by mom’s bed. Mikasa was probably still by the garden, but I had my stomach full and was tired due to the few hours I’d slept. I guess I fell asleep, because when I opened my eyes again the sun was gone and Mikasa was staring at me by the other side of the bed.

“What time is it?” I asked. My voice was scratchy.

“Almost 7 o’clock.”

I couldn’t have woken up at a better time—though I was more surprised by the amount of hours I’d slept on a chair, what would explain the pain around my shoulders. Dr. Pixies, our mother’s doctor, came in with two other nurses. He was a bald old man with a weird mind set, but he was a good doctor. I was actually glad he was our mother’s consultant. It was thanks to him mom had been suggested to a risky surgery with only 30% chances of success. It was thanks to him she had gotten better for another three months before receding back to what it was.

Mikasa got up in a second and greeted them. I did the same thing but in a more subtle way. One of the nurses closed the door while the other prepared something on the table. I noticed how she contemplated the flowers for a while before smiling at them and then me. She had a beautiful smile, I must say. Nothing like the other old woman making a fuss over everything while closing the windows…

“Very well…” Doctor Pixies said after a while. “All Miss Carla will want to do for the rest of the night is sleep. We will wake her up, you kids have a few minutes but then she will need to rest. Are we clear?”

I kept quiet knowing Mikasa would reply in my stead, but Pixies turned to me with a creepy smile, making me consider replying as well. When I consented, the pretty nurse next to me handed him a needle he quickly pursed in mom’s serum.

“Alright, all done.” He said as he stepped back, patting my shoulder so hard I almost fell. “Your mother is a strong woman.” I guess he had more strength than he believed he had. My back was hurting and he kept patting me as if I was a horse ready to run. “Now let’s wait for a bit. Meanwhile, how are you my man?”

I huffed and looked at Mikasa with the most pleading eyes I could master before Pixie’s slap on my back made me close them. “I’m fine…” I mumbled.

“What? I didn’t hear you! Aren’t you a man? _Creatures of a day! What is a man? What is he not? A dream of a shadow is our mortal being._ ” He sang dramatically.

“What?”

“Quoting Pindar... And look, if it isn’t Princess Carla returning from the heavens.” He said as he shook me when mom gapped her lips.

The pretty nurse tapped mom’s chin as if trying to wake her up. Usually, I was almost certain they’d scream at her to wake up, but with Pixies being such a loud fuck that wouldn’t be needed.

When I stepped away from him, clumsily hitting my legs on the chair behind me and falling sat down; Pixies threw his ass on mom’s bed, sitting next to her. “Ral, note her vitals down.”

“Yes, sir.” The nurse replied.

“Alright…” He took a pen out of his pocket and flashed it. It wasn’t a pen, it was a light. His fingers quickly forced each one of my mother’s eyes open, flashing the light in front of them while the nurse kept watching closely and taking some notes down. “Talk to me, Carla. Just don’t choke on your tongue. _Hum_ something if you can hear me.” He asked and mom did. She actually did, and both Mikasa and I got closer and more receptive at that. “See? Your kids are here as good boys they are… Except for Mikasa, who is, in fact, a woman.”

The older nurse left the room just as loudly as she had come in and I noticed Pixies made a face at her behavior. Once they were done, the doctor still asked mom if she felt any pain to what she replied she did but soon added that it was bearable. My favorite part was, of course, when we were allowed to step closer. Mom was really grumpy and sleepy, she couldn’t talk properly, but her eyes still got misty once she saw me. Her hand came up to my face while Mikasa squeezed the other one hard enough to make mom’s eyes shift to her and smile.

“You should rest now. Eren and I would be here tomorrow as well so just rest…”

Mom didn’t reply. She simply smiled and closed her eyes. I took the chance to kiss her forehead and then stepped away to grab my things and leave ahead of Mikasa. Not that I didn’t want to spend more time, I did. The problem was that everything was coming back, what I tried to forget for three days was coming back and I didn’t want to break in front of them, so I just rushed outside to catch some fresh air and calm down.

It was cold outside. There was this very winter-y breeze swinging the leaves around and making me shiver from the cold. Who would have thought the day was a warm one.

“Eren!” Mikasa shouted behind me. “Why did you leave so suddenly?”

I didn’t look at her. It was notable she’d been running because her breathing was heavy. “No reason. She stayed asleep?”

“Yeah… the nurses came in when I left.”

I nodded. “Ok. Let’s go then.” I brushed my shoulder on hers and she took it as the cue to turn around and head in front of me to the car, but something stopped her half way. “What?” I asked when she forced me to stop by stopping as well.

“Isn’t that Jean?”

The name made me contort my face, but I still looked. And it was indeed Jean in his _super_ car with his _super_ look. He hadn’t seen us yet, though. Still, I don’t know if it was because I was thinking aloud enough for him to hear me or if Mikasa just stared hard enough for him to notice, his gaze crossed ours and stayed on us. Didn’t take him long to get out of the car and call for us to get closer. I had to be dragged by Mikasa, though.

“Hey, what’s up?” She asked once she knew he’d hear her.

Jean waved. “Armin told me you’d be here.” And I’d really kill Armin for that. “Actually, I was looking for Eren.” His head popped to the side so he could catch my eyes but then turned to Mikasa again. “I saw the car and guessed you were still inside.”

“Yeah, they just woke her up but she needs to rest.”

“Is everything alright?”

“Everything’s fine. What do you need Eren for, though?”

“Whatever it is, I am not going.” I grunted.

Jean sighed and scratched his forehead. Something about the way he looked away, however, made me notice there was something else going on. “It’s about that job I said I’d help him find. Do you think it’s cool if he comes along?” Were they talking as if I wasn’t there?

“Depends. Maybe I should go along too, in case you two start a fight and have a car crash.”

“If we had a car crash it would be because Jean is a bad driver!” I cried out, still not being noticed.

“It’s fine, Mikasa. Eren is a grown up guy. I am sure he can hang in my car without causing me to have an accident. If he can’t even do that then how is he supposed to work in a restaurant?”

This time I pulled Mikasa aside, but Jean didn’t look at me again. “What did you say?! So now I am the one who starts all the fights?”

“Alright.” Mikasa agreed. “Don’t bring him home too late.”

I hid my face between my hands. There was no way my sister and Jean were planning my life in front of me while ignoring the fact I was actually right there. “If you two don’t stop that right now…”

Jean patted my shoulder and pulled me away from Mikasa, almost shoving me in the way of his car. I would have punched him but Mikasa was there and that would turn into anything but both of us getting knocked out with her above us telling us to behave.

Against my will, I got in his car. Jean still chatted a bit with Mikasa but she was quick to leave—not without fixing me with a look.

“You could have called.” I told him once he was in as well. “Why the hell just show up?”

He took off the parking lot faster than I would have expected him to. “In case you haven’t noticed, your phone’s battery died.”

I looked at him surprised and he nodded. “It did not.”

“It did.”

I had to check, and he was indeed right. “Alright, whatever, what do you want from me?”

He pointed at my door side. “Search in there. You’ll find a paper with an address and a phone number. Call them tomorrow in the morning and ask them to schedule an interview. I’ve told them who you are, so just do it.”

I slid my hand by the door side and did find a piece of paper. When I looked over there was an address and a phone number. There was something that didn’t fit though, and my assumptions were right when at another turn of the wheel, I recognized the path he was following. “Ok. So why are we going to your house?”

Elbow on the window side, Jean held his head with his hand while he kept driving with the other one as one of his fingers tapped a rhythm on the wheel. He didn’t reply, though.

“Fine. I get where this is going, but I should tell you I am not into it tonight.”

“It’s fine.” He finally mumbled. “You always get into it no matter what.” He wasn’t trying to be offensive, but I still took it as such.

I frowned. “That’s easy for you to say. You can just close your eyes and pretend I am Marco or something. You don’t have shit to worry about, you have money, you don’t… Don’t look at me like that, you know it’s true.”

“Don’t think you’re the only one with problems, Eren. And don’t tell me it doesn’t help you forget because I know it does, so shut up.”

I crossed my arms and bit down on my lip. He was getting me irritated and I couldn’t get irritated. If I did I would just storm away the frustration of a whole week and I didn’t want Jean to be the one seeing that. Still… “Your problems revolve around yourself, school and Marco. Is there anything else bugging you at the moment? I don’t think so.”

“Well, you are being a pain in the ass at the moment, actually.”

“No one told you to go pick me up just because you need something physical going on to have a better image of you fucking Marco. Don’t throw that shit on me, Jean.”

He parked the car in his garage, because that guy had the right to have a garage. We got out and made our way to the elevator, still fighting. And, as usual, our fights never made any sense.

“Eren, stop being a shit… I am doing us a favor. Deal with it.”

My hands clenched so hard I started to feel them go numb. “What…?! Alright, wait a minute. You use me to get your needs satisfied just because you don’t have the guts to tell that fag that you love him or whatever. Why or how is that a favor you’re doing me?!”

“Ah! You’re so annoying. Stop pushing, Eren. You’re going too far.” He said as he fumed out of the elevator once we reached the seventh floor. His door was the first on the left and he was quick to throw his keys at the lock and open the door for me who quickly stepped in while throwing a big bunch of tantrums at him.

The Kirstein’s house was a big one. The big hall led to a big living room with a dining table close by a whole window set that had the best views to the city. I had always envied that house of his, along as anything else Jean Kirstein had. I passed by the amazing and large living room and headed to the kitchen, snatching a cup from the cupboard I already knew well enough and going to his fridge to get some of that amazing apple juice his mother always made.

Jean was watching me by the door, eyes craved on me as if he was trying to read me. It made me feel really uncomfortable.

“What?”

“Don’t ask me _what_. That’s what I should be asking you.” He threw in before stepping closer to grab a cup for himself as well.

“Ok, let me just resume what I’ve been telling you the whole time.” I paused and craved my eyes on the wall, hoping I could destroy it with a look. “You don’t have the right to pick me up just when you think you are horny and need someone to fuck.” My cup was slammed on the counter. “You don’t have the fucking right to do that!”

“And you don’t have the right to shout at me when we’re at my house!”

I threw my hands up, almost desperately. “You’re shouting too!”

“You son of a… you started! Besides, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to!”

I rolled my eyes. “Right. You told Mikasa this was about that job. What was I supposed to do? If I said I didn’t want to come she’d kill me.”

His eyes searched me for a while until he finally took his cup to his mouth. The way his face went, though, made me realize he didn’t like it as much as I did. "Who is the mother of the shit head who made this?" He asked as he threw the rest down the sink. I tried to ignore the waste that was.

"That would be _your_ mother..."

He looked away for a few seconds. “What I mean to say is… Stop shoving your frustrations on me like that.”

I massaged my forehead. There was something ugly growing in my gut and I didn’t want it to come out. “I am not…”

“You are. You always do it and I know you’re doing it right now. I always forget I am not the only using you for that, though.”

A dry chuckle came out. “Oh, so you admit it…” He didn’t reply and the silence that came along this time was unbearable. I wanted him to keep fighting, pushing my reason away, but that shitload was doing just the opposite. I had no idea why there was something warm running down my cheeks, but I still turned my head away from him when I felt the tears run down my face. I wanted to cry out loud really badly, so in order to contain myself I just fisted my hands and kicked the counter with my foot while shaking my head. “It’s so fucking unfair…”

Jean sighed and sat above the stand. He was looking down, holding his hands together between his legs. “I know…”

“No you don’t. You don’t know what it’s like to know you will end up losing someone… considering the time you have might not be enough to make up for it… she’s my mother, for god’s sake!”

“It’s true I don’t know how it feels, but I know it’s unfair.” There was a pause. Meanwhile, he got down to the ground again and stepped away. “You better get that job, Eren.”

What followed was pretty much what Jean wanted to happen in the first place. He kept teasing me, making me angry, for the next fifteen minutes until I pinned him down. It was out of rage that I decided not to go easy on him. And the good thing about this kind of thing we did was that there was this one thing we’d never do. It was like an agreement of silence. We’d never kiss. Not out of need, not out of frustration. To me it was more a matter of principle than actually a matter of disgust, but either ways, I was glad Jean honored it silently from the very beginning.

We had sex. Jean came two times before I could finish. Then, despite telling me he wouldn’t do it again and despite my complains for a first time, he did give me a blow job and I found out my knees trembled quite the bit after the show. Between a tongue, parted lips, a sucking motion and the faint glimpse of teeth sliding up and down my dick and a very tight ass that swallowed me whole at each stroke, I had no idea which one I preferred. I guess I didn’t have much experience to decide that yet either.

Of course Jean died on his bed and completely forgot he’d have to take me home. Still, I didn’t make a fuss about it. I needed some time of my own; so, once he was asleep, I used his bathroom, got dressed and left. It would take me quite the time to get home, but it didn’t matter. I also had a lot to think about.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interaction... I am having a moment of heavy breathing over the interaction because I just want them to jump on each other. But nope, doesn't work like that, Cathe. Calm des fucks down, self.  
> Alright, this chapter is tiny, about one or two pages shorter than the rest, and has a lot of influence of Britney and Kesha songs, that's probably why the mood. Jean's playlist flips my brain, ugh.  
> Prepare for a flower shitload for the next chapter. And after the next chapter, might update Sprouting Wings as well.  
> One week for holidays to start, yay. Hope you're all doing good with your tests/exams/work <3

“I told you that’s not it.” I repeated for the third time, trying not to raise my tone so I wouldn’t set Mikasa off. She was the one on the wheel, and she had this tendency to get quite crazy if she got exasperated while driving.

Armin, who had been quiet for the whole time, came close to the front seats and leaned his head in between us. “Well, it wasn’t that bad… I think she bit on.”

I had no idea if he was referring to Mikasa and me telling her my job was guaranteed; or if he was referring to my mother and how I basically lied with all my guts, telling her I had a fine contract in a restaurant and that I was doing just fine with the money.

We’d spent the morning at the hospital, not only visiting mom but also treating some paperwork. Of course mom was better, for much of my happiness but yet dismay, and of course she showered us—more me—with questions about what was going on. The good part was that her health was not even once mentioned. I have no idea if it was because somehow she knew and she didn’t want to worry us, or because she knew we knew and didn’t want us to stress it on to her, therefore trusting our decision not to bring it up either.

Well, it had been all good, until I had to lie. And who knows how bad I am at it. Lucky, Armin was there, lucky, Mikasa covered up for me most of the time—when I expected her not to—and helped me out. Unlucky, though, that we were on our way home and I didn’t want to have instant noodles for lunch like they did.

Mikasa was a noodles lover. I had convinced myself it was due to her origins. She was adopted, after all, a fact I tended to forget to mention despite my overly protect-y form of speech when it came down to _our_ mother. She was part of the family, and that was it. Armin, on the other hand, just wanted to tag along so he wouldn’t have to eat his grandfather’s food without any seasoning.

Once the car was parked in front of our building, I was the first to get out.

“Where are you going?” Armin asked as he stumbled out of the vehicle in a hurry.

“For a walk.” I replied.

“But what about lunch?”

I kicked an inexistent rock on the sidewalk before turning around to look at him. “I’m not hungry.” My stomach growled, though, and I was glad he didn’t hear it.

Walking frustrations off was something I was used to, and that worked quite well. Walking hunger off, on the other hand, was something I knew I couldn’t do. Especially not when it smelled like fried chicken everywhere. Not when turning to the flower shop street as if trying to escape all those mouth-watering scents I almost bumped into someone, someone I actually knew, and who started talking about food the moment she saw who I was.

“Ethan!” The brunette from the flower shop shot out of the blue before throwing her hands at my shoulders. “I’m glad I found you! Oh my god…”

“It’s Eren… and… ok?”

Hanji flung her arm around me and started dragging me along. My head was fitting somewhere between her surprisingly strong bicep and her left boob.

“Ahm, where are we going?” I asked, not making an effort to let go but not really enjoying the feeling either.

“I need someone to help me carry the food back to the shop.” She cleared her voice. “Erwin was busy taking care of some paperwork and Levi ignored me. Glad I found you. Are you from around? What was your name again?”

The first thing that came to mind was that Hanji would give a nice reporter, or a nice interviewer, something that kept her mouth running either with questions or just information. The funny aspect was that we really didn’t know each other, but I couldn’t blame her enthusiasm because that was just how she seemed to be.

“The name’s Eren…” I was let go of once she heard me. “And yes I am from around…” I answered while scratching my neck. Couldn’t help but blush at the close interaction. I wasn’t used at being talked to like that, or even replying with such satisfaction.

Hanji threw me a smile. “Alright, Eren...” And then just carried on.

I guessed I was supposed to follow her, and so I did. She took me to a restaurant nearby. Hearing her talking was turning out to be a really huge mental exercise, so after she ordered whatever she had to and turned to me to talk again I just had to shut down my brain and pretend I was listening. I lost myself somewhere between a wedding and flowers for _the_ wedding and started wondering what I was doing there in the first place. I had no reason to help, but then again, they’d offered me a free bouquet mom had loved, so maybe I did have something… But still, that was Levi’s offer; it was nothing to do with me anymore, right?

Well, that said, but I still helped Hanji carry the four boxes of food to the flower shop. She jumped inside the place with the exact same energy she’d been displaying the whole time. I, on the other hand, was pretty much dragged behind.

The first person I met eyes with was Levi, who was giving me a glare before he rolled his eyes away. He was leaning above the balcony, next to Erwin who seemed busy with a lot of papers, just like Hanji had told.

“Thank you for your patronage.” The brunette said as she threw a wallet at the raven.

Levi caught it in middle air without any effort. “I can see you brought the whole restaurant with you…” He trailed off, landing his eyes on me for a few seconds before spinning them somewhere else, again.

Only then Erwin raised his head to look at me, and then the food. “Oh, wow. Are we hosting a party?” He asked, amusement showing clearly in his eyes.

Hanji went into back of the store. She had to yell back in order for us to hear her. “I found Eren and asked him to help me out. I bought extra food in case he was hungry…” Her head popped up by the door again. “You’re hungry, right?”

Truthfully, I was. But I didn’t want to eat any sort of food in the presence of people I didn’t know. Much less weirdoes like them. I was going to say I wasn’t hungry, but then Levi shot me two poison darts with his eyes.

“You bought extra food for _him_ with _my_ money.” It wasn’t a question. He looked quite scary, despite still being _hella_ hot in my eyes. The look only intensified when Hanji agreed to him. “Then, I hope you’re hungry, kid.” It wasn’t a question either. It was a threat.

The giggle that came from the back room freaked the hell out of me. “Gotta love this place…” I mumbled, as if that was the procedure of living in a neighborhood where we all knew each other.

It’s funny how life spins around and twists in only a couple of seconds. An hour before, I was in the car with Mikasa and Armin, discussing our visit to mom. Now, I was sitting next to an eccentric paradox of a woman, with two men I only knew by their names right in front of me, eating some delicious fried chicken. I had no idea how it went like that, but I could tell the exact moment that made things roll up in such a way. _Why did I turn into this street?_

“So, Eren…” Hanji spoke around a chicken bone. “Tell us about you!”

My eyes wavered between all of them before falling back to my own share of food I had barely touched. “Ahm… There’s not much to say.”

“Well, then tell us the little there is to say.”

None of the other two made a comment. Actually, none of them seemed to be interested in what I had to say, if I even had anything to say. “My name is Eren Jäger, I’m—”

“Your name is Jäger?!” Hanji banged her hands down on the table and looked at me almost terrified.

I looked at her, terrified as well over her reaction, before starting to search for help in the other two. Unfortunately, only Erwin seemed to be acting casually. Levi was wide eyeing me just like Hanji, though their expressions were quite different.

“So I wasn’t mistaken…” Erwin guessed.

“Excuse me…?”

“When you first showed up I guessed it could only be you. Grisha was a good friend of mine. Actually, he was the one suggesting I’d open a flower shop in this part of the town. I never guessed I would meet his son right in our first week, but there you were.” He looked at me with what could be taken as a warm smile that didn’t feel warm at all. “You don’t look much like him… but your eyes… The color is exactly the same. Not to mention you still have the same face from the pictures I saw.”

That was a big revelation. I had to clench my teeth in order to contain the waterfall of questions I was being assaulted with. I wanted to ask how the hell he knew my father. I wanted to ask where my father was. I wanted to ask him a lot of things, but none of them seemed appropriated. When I looked back up, only Levi was watching me. I have no idea what kind of expression I had, but whatever it was, it made his brows furrow in a bit more.

“Wow, who would have guessed…” Hanji mumbled, looking stunned at her food.

“True.” Erwin chuckled.

I had no idea of what to say. Was my father even someone that important? Well, whatever it was, it was none of my business, so I had no reason to feel intimidated by the subject. But when looking down at my food, I realized I wasn’t hungry anymore. I wanted to excuse myself, but before I could do it someone kicked my foot quite hard. I didn’t yelp, but my eyes went up directly to the first person I caught staring at me.

“I am going for a smoke.” Levi announced.

Erwin barely looked at him before nodding and I took the cue and got up when Levi did. Hanji shot me a surprised look.

“You smoke?”

“Ahm…”

A package of tobacco was thrown at my hands as Levi passed by. “Can’t you see he does?”

I followed him outside the shop before handing him back his cigars. “I don’t really…” I trailed off when his eyes landed on me after he’d lit up his cigarette.

“I know.” And with that, he took the package back in his hands.

I had no idea if I was supposed to stay there or just leave. His presence was sort of intimidating. The fact that he seemed not to care about what I wanted to do next was a put off. I didn’t want to guess if people ever wanted my company, which was usually easy to see, but his cold shoulder was making me uneasy to stay around. I guess that tabloid of hot people always coming along with a certain weird personality is true, after all.

“What is your mom sick with?” He asked me after he dragged of his cigar.

I looked up so quickly I felt dizzy. “Cancer.” It was that simple. It didn’t need any other explanation.

Levi didn’t change his expression at my reply. He had his eyes stuck somewhere between the other side of the street and a line of thought I could feel but not follow. There was a moment of silence in which I found myself relaxing. I had no idea if it was because he’d asked me something I was fragile about but didn’t give me the chance to spend much time being brittle about it, but I was finding it easy to relax after some time. Maybe it was because of how calmly he smoked, as if he was just watching things pass by. Whatever it was, I was feeling better.

Levi took a deep breath. “Did she like the flowers?”

That was the last question I was expecting to hear. I had to smile. “She did… There was no way she wouldn’t.” I had to admit to it and he seemed surprised I did.

“Good. That’s good.” A beat. “Don’t blame them, though. I guess they only realized half way after beaming out once finding out your name.” He said it in a subtle way, but I understood.

“It’s ok. I’m cool now.”

He dragged of his cigarette one last time before throwing it at the ground and crushing it with his foot. “If it matters, though… It’s a past story. Three years back from now. Some shit happened back in France and—”

“France?” I interrupted him. He didn’t seem mad, though, just a bit annoyed.

“France. If you’re eager to know, ask Hanji. If you want a _more detailed information_ , wait for me to be ready to tell you about it.” And with that he went into the shop again.

I followed him without even noticing. “Why would I want more details?”

He stopped and then shrugged. “Why wouldn’t you?”

We went back inside and I forced myself to finish my food. Levi still mumbled something about how shitty it was of me if I didn’t eat that at least, and I told him I’d pay him a coffee or something some other time; to what he just said “I get out of work rather late.” And I said I’d pass by later and wait. It was supposed to be just me paying a debt. That’s what we called it when Hanji started throwing in comments about us being all friendly. Not that I minded, but Levi seemed to find even the thought of it quite annoying.

When Erwin rushed back to the shop to serve a client, Hanji took the chance to grab her tablet and do a search throughout YouTube. I was leaning on the table, wondering when was the right time to flee, when she sat loudly next to me.

“What’s your favorite song?”

“Ahm, _Prayer Of The Refugee_ …” I had a feeling this was her way of starting an interaction.

“Oh! That’s so old! Good, good.”

Levi snorted, but when I looked at him he didn’t seem any close to amused. “Says the one who listens to _Come On Eileen_. Don’t accuse others of listening to old stuff, shitty-glasses, when you listen to stuff older than them.”

“I’m 21, though.” I urged to say, not wanting to sound put out by how much younger I was.

“Still not old enough.” He told me. “That song is older than me and I am old enough already.”

Hanji laughed. “True. Hey, you like Rise Against as well, right?” Her head turned so fast to Levi that I wondered how she had not broken her neck.

“Was that from Rise Against?”

“Yes, god, Levi.”

He shrugged. “You’re the music encyclopedia, not me.”

She laughed again and then looked at me. “I believe, greatly, that the music you listen to can tell me a lot about who you are.”

I’d heard Armin say the exact same thing before, and I couldn’t help but be curious about it. “That’d be Rise Against, Kings Of Leon, Korn, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Nickelback…” I trailed off; trying to remember what else was on my phone. I wasn’t one to brag about the music I listened to unless it was Armin or Mikasa. Still, I guessed it would be ok to do it with people who seemed quite open about it. “What does that say about me then?” I grinned as if that was a challenge.

Levi was the one answering, though. “That you’re a hopeless romantic behind all that façade of being, or trying to be, a badass.” He mumbled.

Hanji snorted and I grimaced. “Am I supposed to take that as a bad thing?” I asked.

“Don’t mind him. He has attitude problems.”

It was just for a moment, but before he went back into the shop I saw Levi grin and shake his head while rolling his eyes. I ended up smirking too and turning my attention back at Hanji. Dropping off the shit and facing it seemed like a nice start. “Hey, how did you guys met my dad?”

Her eyes gleamed with joy as she looked at me, as if she was glad I asked _her_.

I left the flower shop two hours later, with the promise of coming back before they closed. I had a lot of things going through my head, some of them worth sharing with Mikasa, some worth keeping to myself. It seemed dad was working somewhere in France, and that’s where he met Erwin and Hanji. Hanji had a master degree in botany and had been together with Erwin for most of her life as a _lab worm_. Erwin had told her about how he would like to move into a small town and start a small business related to flowers, and dad, who seemed to have been together with them for a research on some medicinal plants, suggested this place. They met Levi by the same time and asked him to tag along. It all seemed pretty idealistic to me, but they all blew me as such when I gave it a thought.

I’d also promised Hanji I’d pass by on Monday the next day, and probably the rest of the week if I so wished, to help her out with some adornments. It seemed they’d been asked to do the decorations for some wedding, and since I said I was in the process of getting a job but wasn’t even done with the interview, Hanji alleged that she’d pay me if I helped her out. I said I’d do it for free, but Erwin quickly added he wanted to pay for any work done to the purposes of business itself. Levi just said I’d take it if I was smart, and so I said it was ok.

When I got home, Mikasa was sitting on the couch with Armin. Both of them were watching _The Perks Of Being A Wallflower_ , I quickly recognized. A movie both of them loved and one I was tired of. Not that the movie wasn’t good, it was really good. But getting tired of things tends to happen when I have to deal with them for longer than I can hold in a short period of time. And truth to be told, Armin made me re-watch that movie more than once when it aired for the first time on TV.

I went past the living room and rushed to the bathroom. I was surprised I had so much to pee when I’d had nothing to drink during lunch. But then, I remembered there was tea for breakfast, green tea, so there it was. Mikasa had this idea of starting a diet for quite a while, though I kept telling her she didn’t need one. I guessed that was where the idea of green tea came from. Of course, unlike her, I filled each cup with more sugar than I could handle. “You’ll get diabetes and I won’t care about it because we already have to pay for mom’s treatment.” She used to tell me. Of course, I didn’t care.

I went to get a drink by the kitchen after dropping my things in my room, and then dropped myself between them on the sofa.

“Don’t drop it. “Mikasa warned me, motioning to my cup.

“It’s water.”

“Still.”

“Where did you go?” Armin asked me without taking his eyes out of the screen.

I grinned to show how proud I was of myself. “Got a job for a week.”

Both of them looked at me quickly enough. “What?” They said at the same time.

I shrugged. “Don’t even ask… but I’d say today turned out to be a weird day. I’m working as a…” I had to laugh. “ _Decorator_ or something… God, I don’t even know.”

Armin smiled wide even without understanding where I was getting at. “Eren… I believe you owe me information…”

Oh, did I? And what would he like to know? That it basically started with the fact I felt physically attracted to some guy who was definitely my type, if I even had one to begin with, and that he had one hell of an attitude? Or the fact that some weirdo named Hanji basically turned my life upside down in a single day…? Or that Hanji, that same weirdo, knew more about music and movies than him and I together? Or that I was actually working at a flower shop, Erwin’s flower shop, for about a week with both Hanji and Levi?

“Well… It’s a long story.”

“Long as in…?” He asked.

I just laughed and gave Mikasa a glance. She rolled her eyes and got up with the excuse that dinner would take her a while to prepare. Of course she knew I owed her an explanation too, but of course hers wouldn’t be as detailed as Armin’s.

I opted to start at the most important point which was Hanji and her suggestion of me working with them for a week since none of them wanted to tag along with her for the decorative part of the wedding they’d be adorning, then, proceeded to tell him about Levi. I had no idea why, but Armin welcomed the idea brightly enough.

“I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m 16 again…” I told him.

“The movie was _17 Again_ , though… But 16, sounds good enough.” He paused and licked his lips. “I always knew you had a thing for ravens, though… and wow, if he’s like you said, then mostly your type.”

I smirked. “I didn’t even know I had a type to begin with.”

“Well, when you were younger you used to say your type was Mikasa…”

I had no idea something like that had happened ever before. “What?! No way… I mean, she’s pretty… yes, she’s gorgeous but… It’s Mikasa!”

“Raven, bristly personality…? That’s your type. Wow, praise me for knowing that before you did. That’s why you and Jean don’t….” He paused. “Hum, you know.”

The thought of Jean made me make a face.  Armin just chuckled. “You know… that’s different. Jean is gay with a big G, Levi… I don’t know but he’s just a good piece to the eyes.”

“He’s straight?”

“I have no idea, but most likely. Not everyone can be open-minded like you.” I hit his shoulder softly and he cackled.

“Oh, and you used to think Selena Gomez was cute.”

“Oh my god, Armin… leave my childhood alone.”

“Oh my god, Eren… you were a teenager.”

“Leave my teens alone, then!”

Dinner turned out to be risotto, again, because Armin wanted to try it out as well. I ranted about how we had to start trying out some other things instead of Italian, and Mikasa agreed. She said she’d like to learn how to cook some Japanese dishes, which both Armin and I welcomed with a bright smile.

“Sushi, I’d like to try that…” I mumbled.

“Ugh, but that’s like raw fish, right?” Armin asked with a disgusted face.

Mikasa laughed. “Well, sushi is too hardcore for us to try, but I guess we could do something… the ingredients, though… those are expensive.”

“Oh, it’s cool. You and Armin starve to death with noodles at every meal for a month, I get free meals in exchange for a coffee, and we eat something expensive for once.”

Armin scoffed. “I am so glad you two include me in your family projects. I should cry…”

“Yeah, it’s like… the brother, the sister and the dog.”

“Oh my god, Eren… I hate you.”

“With a burning passion!” I cheered.

They talked about their upcoming exams. Armin was mourning over with bio psychology while Mikasa kept saying she had a few projects to finish by the end of next week. _Unconsciously_ , I thanked for not being into that stuff, but _consciously_ I knew that wasn’t something to be thankful for.

I helped them with the dishes and then told my sister I’d be taking Armin home.

“I said I could come alone…” He told me almost chuckling when he opened his door.

I shrugged. “I know, but I had to come out anyway… This was an excuse to avoid Mikasa.”

He eyed me for a while. “Where are you going?” He seemed quite hopeless for a second, but I ignored it since there was something else on my mind.

“Flower shop…” I trailed off, just barely looking at him.

“Oh.”

“Yeah…”

“Good luck.” He teased.

I threw my hands at my face and growled. “God, it’s not like that!”

“Yeah… Keep telling yourself that.”

“Armin…” I warned, and he laughed.

“When is that job interview, by the way…?”

“Next week’s Thursday…”

“Ok. We’ll talk about it again, then.”

I just nodded and, then, after the respective goodbyes, I left. My phone’s clock was proudly displaying 8:15pm.

I passed by the flower shop twenty minutes earlier. I was headed to the convenience store to get something to entertain myself with while I waited for Levi. The guy behind the balcony greeted me once I was in. I just nodded, meaning that yes, I had acknowledged him, and then got what I wanted, paid, and left.

Hanji was outside, ducking inside her car while singing and swinging her hips at the same time. I bit my lower lip and tried not to smile too wide as I rolled my eyes. The sound when I crackled my can open made her swing back up, hitting her head on the door as she processed the whole maneuver.

“Ouch…” She whined. Took her a while to catch my presence, but when she did, I saw her beam like a kid. “Oh my god, you’re really here! I was wondering if you’d come.”

I shifted a bit where I was and smiled at her. “Why wouldn’t I? I said I’d be here by the time you guys were done with work.” Changing my Fanta from hand to hand was becoming a natural process since the can seemed even colder than usual.

She shrugged as she closed the door. “Well, it’s not like we know each other that well so I guessed you wouldn’t stick. Much less with Levi…”

“I cannot seem to understand why…” I mumbled sarcastically as my lips curled up into another grin. I was glad Hanji laughed at that.

“He’ll be out in a minute.” She told me before going back in.

“Ok.”

That was really uplifting. It was the same feeling from that afternoon. I wasn’t used to deal with anything that wasn’t the natural outcome of my life. Anything new always sounded fishy to me, and that’s why I didn’t have many friends. Thanks to Armin and Mikasa, I was able to establish a few new bonds, but sticking to the routine—even though it was something healthy to my peace of mind—could also cut the thrill to certain things. But I was no good at relationships and I was glad none of these guys seemed to mind it. They were all really refreshing and I couldn’t help but be in a good mood. Learning to adjust myself to the unknown was exhausting, but was becoming quite the challenge I didn’t want to fuck up.

I was leaning against what I guessed to be Hanji’s car, finishing my lemon Fanta, when the three of them came out in a big hassle. Hanji was blabbering about something I couldn’t quite understand what, Erwin was locking the shop and laughing in a strong and loud tone, and Levi was just… Levi.

His eyes shifted to me for a while, but he didn’t give me any sign of acknowledgement. Instead, he turned again to Hanji and mumbled something I didn’t understand either, because of how much of a whisper it was, and then rolled his head back a bit just to look at Erwin. “See you tomorrow…”

Erwin looked confused until he saw me. He smiled and looked back at Levi. “See you tomorrow, Levi.”

I finished my drink before Levi was standing right in front of me, looking rather bored. It was almost impossible not to pity him, considering what Hanji had instructed me about a few hours before. “Hey…” I greeted.

He blinked slowly at me and then rolled his orbs away to look at something else.

“So where do you wanna go?” I huffed, stretching up and looking at anywhere that wasn’t him. Everything seemed quite awkward all of a sudden.

Levi turned his back to me and _tched_. “You were the one inviting, and now you’re asking me?”

“Well, I—”

“Incompetent piece of shit…” He whispered.

Usually, something like that would make me drop my moods and sulk, using everything I could to engage in a fight. However, this time, what he said lifted my spirits up a lot. Strange thing was that, consciously, I had no idea why. “You haven’t eaten anything yet, right?”

He turned just slightly to look at me with questioning eyes. “Right…”

I would be the one paying so I had to watch out for how expensive it would get. There was still something we could do, though, something that wouldn’t sound so bad, even if the initial idea was just a coffee.

We were sitting at the park one hour later. I’d gotten us tea from one of the stores close by, and also two hot dogs. I actually thought Levi would complain at the suggestion, but as he looked at the bill board, he seemed quite abject to the whole thing, and ended up agreeing with my offer without another word.

We ate in silence, just looking at the scenery and the people who passed by. I was so distracted by how good the calm felt that I almost jumped when my phone buzzed in my pocket. By the corner of my eye I saw Levi throw me a look. Not an annoyed one, just a bit skeptical. Mikasa had been the one texting me, asking if I’d have dinner with her. I replied I wouldn’t, and hauled my phone back into my pocket again.

I was the first to finish my food, and then just nibbled my tea cup until Levi was done with his share.

“Is our debt sealed?”

I turned to look at him. We’d been quiet for so long that I was surprised when I heard his voice. “Yeah…” A beat. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

He breathed out quite hard, startling me in the process of doing so.

“What?” I asked.

Levi looked at me and I swear I could see how his lips were curling up just the tiny bit. “I sort of imagined this differently, that’s all…”

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. “Imagine… what?”

He rolled his eyes and took my empty cup out of my hands with me following his movements with particular attention. “I just thought you’d be talking non-stop. Annoying the shit out of me like that shitty-glasses does. I guess I’ve read you wrong.”

I didn’t want to feel so full of myself. I really didn’t want to feel my confidence boast just because I understood that somehow he’d considered me for a while. Not only because that didn’t strike me as Levi, being him so distant from everything and everyone, but also because I had to face the fact that he was hot. Combining both kinda threw me over the edge right there.

“What are you smiling at?” He asked me, same rude tone as always.

I ignored his question and jumped into the next subject that was assaulting my head. “So… Flowers. Why flowers?”

His lips were parted just a bit and he was looking at me quite surprised—or as much surprised he could seem. “Well, I…” He turned his head away as if he needed some privacy to think. “Erwin told me it would be a good idea… something about not wasting talents…”

“You’re from France, right?”

“Hm, yeah.”

“Well, I like your arrangements a lot… So I guess Erwin was right. Though…” I looked at him and our eyes met for a while. “Though you don’t seem as proud about it as someone would usually be…”

There was a moment of silence before he turned away again and sighed. “Don’t talk as if you know everything…” He mumbled and I smirked. Still, he got up right after that, kicking the ground softly as he did, and stared at the people passing by ahead of us. “Our debt is paid, so I guess it’s time for me to go.” He threw our cups in the litter right next to us.

I couldn’t really complain about that, even if I didn’t want to go home just yet. “Sure…” I mumbled, a bit lost as I tried to catch up with what he was beholding.

Levi didn’t look at me when he turned to walk away, but… “I’ll see you tomorrow, kid.” He said.

I almost jumped from the bench at that. I had completely forgotten about it, I’d promised Hanji I would pass by to help her out with the decorations. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I think it’s been a month, or two, since I last uploaded something, but you know how it works. Sometimes life requires a break from some stuff. Even so, I’m sorry for the long wait. Also need to update Sprouting Wings but this one comes first.  
> This chapter is a bit tiny, despite having about 5 different POVs, but the next one will probably bring back the normal +/- 15 paged sections. Also, there’s a reason why Eren talks about his mother in the past tense. It’s not a syntactic mistake; it really is supposed to be like that. I’ll cover for it later on.
> 
> As for the flowers and their meanings:
> 
> Dandelion = wish of happiness and promise  
> White Dittany = fire  
> Scarlet Geranium = stupidity  
> Rose (as presented in this case) = beauty

_(Mikasa)_

I’d been staring at my phone the whole time since I decided to sit down and have my breakfast. I was considering if calling Armin was a good option or not, but I couldn’t come up with any better idea. I tapped my finger on the table a few times before deciding to go for it. It didn’t take him too long to pick up the call.

 _“Mikasa? Why are you calling me so early in the morning…?”_ Armin sounded sleepy. I had completely forgotten he didn’t have classes on Monday mornings.

“Oh… I’m sorry; I just wanted to ask you something… You can go back to sleep, we’ll talk later.”

He sighed _. “Are you serious? I’m awake now, just go for it. What’s wrong?”_

I didn’t want to sound so worried, but it was actually concerning me and I knew I wouldn’t be able to think about anything else until I’d figured it out. “Well, it’s about Eren.” I went quiet, waiting for that reaction he always had when I wanted to talk about Eren, but he stayed quiet so I went on. “Do you remember how he was when he was a kid? All affectionate and thoughtful with the people closest to him…?”

Armin groaned before replying. _“Yeah, I remember. What about it?”_

“Well, I don’t know how it is with you. He’s still goofy sometimes and all, but he rarely acts affectionate towards… anyone, in general…”

_“Alright…?”_

“He kissed my forehead this morning and did bid goodbyes with me before leaving.”

A big silence fell upon the whole conversation while we both contemplated my words. And I say this because, of course, I couldn’t believe that had actually happened. Armin was the first to recover his ability to talk.

 _“Well, maybe he’s just happy. You know, he finally found something to do and it seems he will actually get paid. Then, next week, he has his interview.”_ A beat. _“We all know Eren is not good at, you know, socializing… but I guess these guys he met aren’t quite what we could consider normal, I guess.”_

Eren hadn’t told me anything about the people he was working with. He did mention the flower shop, but the conversation ended there. I can’t say I wasn’t jealous of Armin at that moment, because I was. But I guessed that would be very childish on my behalf. “He told you about them?” Still, I could only guess it was all still pretty obvious on my tone.

 _“Yeah… He did.”_ Armin mumbled. _“We can always pretend he didn’t.”_

“Yeah, I suppose we can.”

_“Anything else?”_

“No. That’s all.” I was about to hang up when he called for me again.

_“Ahm, Mikasa… I hope you’re not planning to eavesdrop on your brother, are you…?”_

I really wanted to laugh at his statement, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I ever decided to actually do that. Still, I guessed I could trust Eren on that one, so I told Armin that no, I wouldn’t pry on my brother.

 

_(Eren)_

I really had to enjoy moments of clarity when I had them. Guessing the flower shop would open earlier than usual that day because of the arrangements for a wedding—weddings were usually in the morning so I supposed, considering flowers die quick, they would be working on them since early—was the best thought I ever had that week.

I arrived around 7 o’clock, and was greeted with a heavy box Hanji dropped in my arms when I got close enough to the truck in front of their shop. “What the hell is this?” I complained, feeling the weight of that thing almost reaping my arms apart.

“Flowers.” She told me before she turned around to look at the rest of the boxes all around her. “Take that inside. Levi is there, he’ll tell you where to drop it.”

I just rolled my eyes at the sentence that was slowly forming inside my head, something about how flowers couldn’t be that heavy, and went inside, almost tripping on the step at the entrance of the shop if it wasn’t for Levi who held the box right in front of me, stopping the fall. “Thanks…” I mumbled.

He simply  gawked at me before taking the weight out of my hands as if it didn’t even bother him. “Take your things to the dressing room.” Was all he told me for the rest of the time we spent taking those boxes inside.

Erwin was talking to the stockiest the whole time. I kinda wondered why someone as strong as him wouldn’t help us out. I mean, I could understand why Hanji wouldn’t, even though she seemed quite strong, but the job had been left in my hands, and Levi’s too of course, so I supposed it was a men’s thing. With Erwin helping, we would only have taken half the time. He was my boss though, not complaining there.

Once everything was inside, we all stepped in and stared around at the big mess the shop was at that moment. Erwin passed me a black apron with their logo and told me to put that on. Then he ordered Hanji to help him taking the flowers to the fridge. I was wondering what I was supposed to do when someone smacked my head with a broom stick.

“What are you staring at?” Levi asked me in a rude tone. “Here, pick this up and start cleaning.” He had a broom for himself in his other hand so I supposed he would help.

At each box Erwin and Hanji picked from the ground together, petals and leaves would fall, not to mention the dust Levi kept complaining about. I wondered if, at some point, asking him why were we cleaning everything considering he’d be spreading leaves and petals all over the floor again once he started making the arrangements was a good idea, but I opted not to.

When everything was in its rightful place, and cleaned, I was finally able to sit down. Hanji was bringing flowers to the balcony and placing them in different groups. Erwin was getting ready to head out to take care of something else and Levi was looking attentively at some list.

“She wasn’t picky at all, it seems…” He mumbled after a while. “I mean, dandelions, really?”

Erwin huffed to pick up his car keys that had fallen on the ground. “I got you a full box of those. They perish quickly so they’re in the fridge. Flower crowns of dandelions and bouquets of white dittanies. One per table…”

“How many tables?” Levi asked, eyes rolling up to Erwin in that questioning way they tended to do when people are about to know something they would prefer not knowing.

“Twenty-four…”

Levi snapped. I almost fell from my chair when I heard his hand slam on the counter. “What the fuck. When were you planning to tell me that, Erwin?”

“I just did. Now get to work.” The man replied with close to no emotion in his voice.

My eyes flicked between Levi and Erwin for a while until the first finally decided to go get those, as he mentioned, _fucking dandelions_. I bounced in my chair before leaning forward and getting up right beside Hanji. “Whose wedding is it?” I asked, just out of curiosity.

She blinked at me for a while before smiling wide. “Oh, it’s our friend, Petra Ral.” She did say Ral, didn’t she? It was a familiar name but I didn’t say anything. “Also, sorry for how abruptly this all started, but we’re all pretty stressed out. Levi wanted to attend to the ceremony and well… so did I of course…” She seemed lost in her thoughts for a while but the return to mother Earth was quick. “Well! Work is work, however. And Petra did ask us for this favor, so of course we’re doing it.” She patted my shoulder. “Thanks for showing up, Eren. We would be doomed without you.”

I smiled back at her. I liked to know my presence was appreciated, but of course Levi was quick to snap away the happy feeling.

“Take your sorry ass out of the way, kid.” It was somewhat outputting when this guy could go from calm and quiet to talkative and bristle in a matter of seconds.

I stepped aside so he could fit between me and Hanji. He was small so it wasn’t a big deal. “So she’s your friend?”

“Petra?” Hanji replied. “Yes. I’m so glad she finally found someone to establish her life with.”

Erwin was still around, for some reason I could not understand until I actually saw him exit the back of the store with a black suit on. I was almost put off by how good he looked. I had no idea when had he changed clothes, but part of me was glad he did for some reason.

“Well, Auruo is a good guy. I’m sure she’s quite happy.”

“He’s a bit lousy, actually.” Levi added. He was already working on his first flower crown and I was surprised by how quick he was. “And a bit dumb…” He paused. “Don’t tell Petra I said that.”

Hanji giggled. “Oh, come on. He’s a good guy. He’s thoughtful and all romantic around her. Plus, he’s a cop. You should be very proud.”

Levi snorted. “Why, I’m not the one marrying him.”

The brunette slapped his shoulder. “Proud of her, you idiot… She’s your best friend. Not considering myself of course.”

Erwin just laughed. “Alright, I’ll be back in a few hours to retrieve those flowers. See you later.” And with that he exited the shop.

“Where is he going?” I asked.

“To have a word with the manager of the place where the party is being hosted... And then he will mark his presence at the ceremony to represent us all there.”

“You guys are not going?” It was only natural to ask. It was their friend’s wedding so I guessed they all wanted to attend to it.

“Erwin is going in the morning. I’ll go during the afternoon and Levi will probably show up at night, right?” She turned her head to him and he just looked at her without giving back any sort of response.

“So you guys are not closing the shop?”

“Which part of her speech didn’t you understand?” Levi mumbled quite annoyed.

It wasn’t much later that Hanji requested my help with the bouquets. Of course, I refused. But she was more persistent about it than Mikasa would be about anything, in general, so I ended up helping her out, for much of Levi’s amusement.

Above all, it was a well spent morning. After the initial confusion, we all ended up having a good time. Hanji spent a long while talking about how she was studying transgenic organisms and how much that could be useful when flowers were in question. Levi, of course, had a shitty argument ready for her all the time. I was starting to follow that their relationship was pretty much about how much they could win over each other with arguments.

“So about flowers in general… they all have meanings right?”

“They vary depending on their number and color, but yes. All have meanings.”

I had been cutting straw lines for a while; the ones Hanji was using to help stick the arrangements together so they could all fit in a box without breaking. “Eh… My mother used to know a lot about that. She always loved flowers, that’s why. She used to say there’s always the right flower for each person.”

Levi laughed in his throat. “Smart mother… In your case, for example, if I had to give you flowers, I’d give you an arrangement of scarlet geraniums.”

“Yeah? What do those mean?”

Hanji snorted and Levi just shrugged. I had no idea why they were acting like that, but I opted to stay quiet and look up for the meaning later on.

 

_(Hanji)_

We finished all the arrangements a few minutes earlier than we had planned to. Erwin would show up in a few to pick them up so we were all waiting for him to arrive before we could go out and grab something to eat.

Levi was sitting at the door step smoking his cigar and Eren, our newbie, was standing right beside him. I had no idea what they were talking about, but there was no way I was going to let them have a moment without me.

I got closer, slowly so I wouldn’t be noticed, and tried to catch a drift of their conversation.

“I don’t know…” Eren trailed off. “Doesn’t it sound a bit scary to you? Like if the person you trusted for so long suddenly shows to be something you weren’t expecting…”

Levi chuckled. “You’re kinda cautious, aren’t you?”

“Is that a problem?”

“Not really. Actually, welcome to the club.” He dragged of his cigarette and then puffed the smoke in the shape of a circle. I loved when he did that. “I think none of us in here is ever going to get married. Erwin is way too dedicated to his job and Hanji can only establish a good relationship with her microscope.”

If it wasn’t for the fact I was offended by what he’d said, I would have stayed quiet. “Bean is a lot more understanding than you are!” I whined, arms crossed just to prove my point.

Both of them turned to me. Levi didn’t seem surprised, not even amused, but Eren was already smiling once he spotted the twitch on my lips. He was such a pretty kid, baby faced pretty boy.

“Aren’t you guys hungry?” My stupid raven friend asked after a while.

“I am…” Eren admitted. “I only had tea for breakfast…”

“What?!” I shouted, throwing my arms at him to shake him. “There’s no way you’ll do that ever again! You’re just a kid, you’re growing!”

Eren grabbed my arms and softly pushed them down. “I highly doubt I’m growing more than this. I’m totally fine being 175cm. Plus, I’m 21, so I’m not a kid anymore.” I could notice he was not amused by the fact I called him a kid so I was quick to retreat.

“I’m 35!” I said.

“30.” Levi added.

I could notice how surprised Eren looked when his eyes quickly dashed down to Levi. Normal thing to do, of course… No one would guess that guy’s age based on his appearance. We still waited for a few more minutes until I started to get bored. “Let’s play a game.” I mumbled.

Levi got up, with Eren following his every movement, and patted the back of his jeans. “I highly doubt that’s a good idea, four-eyes.”

 

_(Erwin)_

I parked the truck right in front of the store so the transportation of the boxes would be easier. However, I wasn’t expecting to see what I saw upon my arrival.

Once I got in, my eyes landed on Levi, who was sitting on the ground above what I guessed to be Eren’s jacket and had a yellow post-it paper pasted to his forehead. Hanji was doing the exact same thing, though the paper on her forehead was pink. Eren was the only one standing, and he also had a paper pasted to him.

“Don’t you guys have work to do?” I asked, crossing my arms and looking at how incredibly ridiculous they were being.

“All done.” Levi mumbled between his teeth.

I rolled my eyes and got closer to them. “What are you doing?”

“Playing a game.” Hanji replied before she slapped her lap. “Oh, I know… I’m Sherlock! Sherlock Holmes!”

Levi snorted and Eren just laughed. “No, you’re not.” They said at the same time. It didn’t take a genius to guess what game they were playing at.

“What?! How can that be? I’m smart, considerably pretty, male, dark hair, bristly personality…? Who am I then?”

Eren laughed even more. “I think you’re forgetting a very important point…”

“Shut up, Eren. Don’t even dare.” Levi threatened.

The kid just raised his hands as if there was a gun pointed at him. “I said nothing.”

It was nice seeing they were all so close friends, unfortunately there were things that had to be done. “Hanji, you’re Levi; Eren, you’re Madonna; Levi you’re… a cactus…”

They all looked at me as if I’d spoiled all the fun. All except Levi, who seemed to be cursing Hanji for her lame choice of character.

_(Levi)_

We’d done an agreement before, Hanji and I. We had agreed not to exclude Eren from anything we’d do. We all knew each other for years, and Eren Jäger would be the poor soul that would land there to help us out. So when Hanji mentioned his presence that morning, we both silently agreed to keep the brat included in whatever we did.

I wasn’t expecting her to suggest any games. The only times we got to play something was when we gathered all together at Erwin’s house to do our movie nights. We had covered almost every game so far, and the one Erwin had just interrupted was my least favorite. Eren’s suggestion about what to write on Hanji’s post-it turned out to be a great idea, nevertheless.

Now that Erwin had left along with four-eyes, though, we were pretty much by ourselves on that store. I had to admit I wasn’t comfortable enough now that Hanji had left, but I was the grown-up and I had a reputation to keep.

Eren had been cleaning the floor, just like I had ordered him to, and now he was resting on the chair he ended up adopting right after his arrival. I was swapping through my phone, agreeing to his silence, when he suddenly got up. I was watching him, wondering where he was going, when he stopped by the shelf next to our counter. He raised his hand and pressed a finger on a book’s cover, a book I knew very well. Of course I grinned at him, but he wouldn’t see.

“Interested in their meaning?” I asked; eyes on my phone’s screen.

He probably turned around. “Maybe… I was going to ask you, but you seem busy.”

“Are you serious?” I laughed, softly, slowly raising my judges to him.

He smiled, showing up a perfect set of teeth, and then shrugged. “I’ve seen people fight for less. So… Can I?” He pointed at the book titled ‘ _Plants And Their Meaning’_.

I just nodded and then went back to my solitary game I was playing on my phone. If anything, I could start considering what I would be able to grab to eat later on. Hanji had gotten us something from Subway before she left, but considering that felt like thin air in my stomach I was already in view of my next meal.

We spent some time like that; Eren reading my old book while I played games on my phone. From time to time, I could hear the brat chortle. I guessed he could be having fun reading that. We stayed quiet until he broke the silence.

“So I’m worth a bouquet of stupidity…” He slammed the book open right next to me and leaned above it while glancing between me and my phone with a challenging look.

I had to laugh when I remembered what I’d told him about the scarlet geraniums. “So you got it.”

He snickered. “I got it…” Then, he paused and looked back at the book. “Well, in my case, if I had to give you something, I’d give you… a rose.”

I was the expert, he wasn’t. I knew all the possible meanings of a single flower, and he didn’t. That’s why I had to check. “A rose…”

He didn’t look at me when he talked. “Well, here it says they have a lot of meanings, but when offered between people of the same sex they usually mean—”

“I know what they mean.” That was probably too abrupt from me. I could see he wasn’t going to face to me any time soon so I just chose to take the compliment. It didn’t mean I didn’t feel any less bothered by it, nevertheless. “Thank you.”

Eren’s eyes flickered at me before he grinned and took the book back to his seat with him. I just shook my head as if trying to show disapproval, however, my expression was betraying me.

 

_(Eren)_

Hanji sent me home right after Levi left for the wedding. I still told her I could help her close up the store but she ignored me and slammed the door on my face after she noted down my phone number.

Levi and I still talked for a while, about weddings and food, in general. It was mostly me doing all the talking. He had been kinda quiet ever since our little exchange of feelings in the flower language, _if that could even be considered a language_.

I seriously couldn’t believe I was bold enough to tell him that, but what was done was done. I ended up taking a little detour before going home, and Mikasa almost killed me for forgetting to warn her about it. Plus, it could only get worse when I noticed I’d forgotten my keys.

“I should have just let you sleep outside.” She mumbled between her teeth while someone else, some other girl I’d never seen, passed by me to exit our house.

My eyes searched through the tall brunette, up and down, probably very clumsily, before they went back to Mikasa. “Who’s this?” My arm swung back to point at the freckled girl standing by our elevator.

“She’s my friend. Ymir, she passed by to give me back my notes.”

My orbs kept going back and forward between them until I noticed the so called Ymir was grinning at me. A grin that reminded me of Levi in one of his pleasurable moments of messing either with me or his friend, Hanji…

Mikasa ended up pulling me into the house and closing the door behind her before leaning against it and sighing.

I shrugged my jacket off without taking my eyes out of her. “Is everything alright?”

“Why didn’t you text me?”

“I forgot…”

“You always forget…” A beat. “Anyway, I made dinner. I thought we should it eat together, so I waited for you… and just so you know, I’m starving!”

So was I. She had no idea how much I was longing for food, considering the only thing I’d had for lunch was something Hanji brought from Subway and Levi didn’t even let me exit the store for a bit during the whole afternoon. “I’m hungry… thank you. What did you cook?”

We made our way into the kitchen, Mikasa leading, and she looked at me above her shoulder with a thin smile on her face. “That would be curry.”

Turns out that curry was one of my favorite dishes and I couldn’t help but throw an arm around her at that. “Wow you did that? No fucking way!”

She crossed her arms in front of the pot, looking at it with a scowl. “Well, it could be better… for a moment I was wondering why it looked darker than the one mom used to make, but it turns out it’s possible to happen depending on the quantity of seasonings you add.”

“You really gotta teach me how to do it…”

“Well, if you were home on time or had actually warned about the time you’d be arriving, we could have done it together.”

I took the chance to look at her and she turned her face to me as well. We were past the point where we both looked the same height. I was about 3cm taller than her, and for my ego it made all the difference. “Sorry. Busy day and all… I promise I’ll warn you next time.”

She turned away, slightly blushing, and then just nodded. “Ok… By the way, how was your day?”

“Like you have no idea…”

We set on the table for the two of us and, while we were eating, I took the chance to tell Mikasa about my day. Of course, I ignored some details, little things she didn’t need to know.

“So what about tomorrow, are you going back there?” She asked me as she grabbed my plate and hers to take them to the sink.

I scratched my head. “Yeah… Hanji said she’d text me later tonight about the time she’d need me there.”

“How much for the whole week?”

I had a feeling she’d ask me that sooner or later so I just shifted on my chair and smirked. “Some lovable 100€.”

“No way!” She looked back, as surprised as Mikasa could get, eyes sparkling with excitement. “That’s more than I thought you’d get.”

“It’s more than I thought I’d get too, but Hanji told me before I left today it would be around that much… I guess it’s really good, huh?”

“It’s excellent.” She turned completely to smile as warmly as she could. “Mom would be proud of you…”

After dinner both of us took our time in the living room. We were both fans of The Big Bang Theory and we had some saved episodes on the TV box so we decided to watch them. Afterwards we used the bathroom in turns and I took my chance to take a shower.

When I finally found myself resting in my bed, I was wondering why I felt so tired all of a sudden. I had forgotten about how socializing can be exhausting. Taking out my arms out of consideration, said arms that were finally complaining about the boxes I’d carried in the morning, my body was fine. Still, I was mentally exhausted.

I closed my eyes and turned on my left. My mind was almost drifting off when my phone started pulsating above my desk. I considered ignoring it, but then it also occurred to me I hadn’t visited my mother at the hospital that day. It was the first time, ever since she’d been hospitalized, that I didn’t visit her.

Part of me felt guilty. I had a terrible feeling in my gut for being oblivious to it the whole day. And it wouldn’t have gotten any better if I hadn’t, in fact, reached for my phone to check the text I’d received.

‘ _Hanji told me to warn you to show up tomorrow around 10am. Also, you were right about the seafood in weddings. It’s either too good or despicable, there’s no middle. Levi_.’

I snorted. There was no way this guy could be serious. They were all just a bunch of weirdoes, but well, I was no better.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dancing is so gay I just had to try it. Even if it's as clumsy as that.  
> Anyway, I don't have much to say about this chapter. Hanji is basically doing the job of a fangirl; Erwin is being a dork about food; Levi is being Levi; and Eren is stressing out (and falling quite hard).

“What is he doing?” Hanji asked with a straw between her teeth. I was really concerned about the fact she drank coffee with a straw, but then there was Levi and his weird way to pick up a cup. It was intriguing how he could do that without letting it fall down.

Said Levi, who’d been leaning over the counter playing games on his stupid phone, turned his head to her. “Stressing.”

Yes, I was stressing. Turns out the restaurant whose owner was going to interview me next week was an acquaintance of Hanji’s. And, according to her, he was very picky about people. She mentioned some weird habit of his, like a run-through, to use during interviews. She also said, depending on the results of that _exercise_ , I could either pass or not. And she didn’t forget to add the ratings of success were kinda low. Oh, she also said he was scary and used the association with Darth Vader just to set me on the right horizons. I had heard interviews were bloodcurdling, but I wasn’t expecting that.

“What? You’re still worried about that?” Hanji laughed. “Oh, it will be fine. I like you, so of course he will like you too.”

“Don’t waste your _blablabla_ on him, four-eyes. By the time the said day arrives he will have succumbed to death.”

The brunette seemed amused. “Cause?”

“Gastric ulcer.”

“Sounds legit.”

Actually, I was surprised I wasn’t already dead. My head had been swinging between my knees for a few while my hands stroked the back of my neck. With so much blood flowing to my brain it was weird I wasn’t dizzy yet. Somehow, I hopped they would distract me with something else instead of talking about me as if I wasn’t there.

“Oh, please. How bad could it be?” Hanji asked in a baby-ish voice. “I can already imagine him being like: _Hello, my name is Mike Zacharius_.” She blurted in a manly voice.

Levi snorted. “He’ll try to adopt you, brat.”

I raised my eyes just to admire how that man could actually sound amused and break into a thin smile or grin, but still look completely apathetic if you considered his eyes. “So he is Darth Vader.”  I offered.

The raven’s bored grey eyes turned to mine. It was amazing how I could look into those orbs and see nothing but a deep and cold slum. “He’s Darth Vader and you’re Luke Skywalker.”

I raised my back and crossed my arms. “What does that make you?”

He grinned and then shrugged while shaking his head. “I dunno, Princess Leia?”

For a moment, and just for a moment, I wished to be Han Solo instead of Luke. But I ended up shoving the thought away and just got up with the excuse of something to do. “I’m going the clean the floor.”

“Wow, look who’s caught your habits Levi.” Hanji adverted. I could _hear_ the smile forming on her face. “Better later than never, huh?”

We’d been working together for three days, counting that day as the fourth. Of course, considering that in the past days I was doing the shift between Hanji’s and Levi’s, there wasn’t much to do when they weren’t around. I would either keep reading the book I’d borrowed from Levi or spend my time cleaning the shop. However, Levi never really trusted me on that one. He’d either clean it himself later on or make me do it all over once again, or twice if he was moody.

Hanji, now on her break, had been in the lab since after lunch time. She’d do researches as a hobby so she took all the free time she could gather to work on them if she wasn’t hanging out with any of her friends. Levi had arrived just a few minutes ago and had been in some sort of adoration towards his phone since then. I, of course, had been mourning over what Hanji had told me about my next interview.

“Eren, you shouldn’t worry so much. It will be alright.”

I looked at her by the corner of my eye without saying a word.

“By the way, how was your mother? You visited yesterday, right?”

There was a slight shift on Levi’s behalf but I ignored him. I knew that was his doing. After all, he was the one I had told just two days ago I’d visit my mother every day and that I had missed her on Monday. He hadn’t said anything, but Hanji had been asking questions about mom from time to time since then.

“She was… ok, I guess.”

“Did she like the flowers?” Hanji asked with a wide smile spreading all over her face. Levi had made the arrangement, not her.

I grinned. “Yeah, she did.” I grabbed the mop and squeezed it on the bucket before throwing its end on the floor to start cleaning.

Levi’s eyes finally rose from his phone. If anything, that guy loved to inspect all my cleaning work as if that was a military school.

“Eren, you missed that spot.” He said after a while.

I looked at him, trying to decide which face I’d pick, if an annoyed one if a surprised one. “Huh?”

“There…” He pointed at me. “Between your legs.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but the way my heart skipped a beat made me close it again before I finally decided to look down. There was, indeed, a spot I had missed. I stepped back and whipped that same spot, then looked at him as if asking the silent question: _is it alright now?_

He looked back with one of those expressions I couldn’t read. I hated when I couldn’t read him.

“I’m trying…” I shrugged after a while.

"Try not, do or do not." There was no way he had just quoted Yoda at me. There was no fucking way he’d done that.

“I thought you were Princess Leia, not badass Yoda.” I threw in, willing to defy him on that one.

Levi turned away for a few moments before looking back at me. “I have a bad feeling about this…”

My hands coped at the top of the mop’s stick and I rested my chin on them. “A bad feeling about what…?” I asked, tired to think about what he’d said and give it the meaning he probably expected me to.

His eyes shifted a bit before he gave me an answer. “I just quoted Princess Leia… On the asteroid, remember?”

“Oh, right!”

Hanji rolled her eyes and turned away to go back to what she was doing. “I’m dealing with two freaks.” I heard her say.

It wasn’t surprising when ten minutes later I saw Levi grab a broom to clean the floor. Being outside, catching some sun, was nice when things tended to get slow, especially after lunch time.

Expecting too much from a day was something I wouldn’t do, still, the monotonous feeling I’d found out about a few days ago was assaulting me again. Turns out that when life resumes itself every day, I wouldn’t feel anything but the numbness the routine gave me. However, after stepping out of my comfortable zone, I was finding my return to it quite despicable. I’d told Armin about it, in one of our late-night phone calls. He said it was something usual and that I shouldn’t worry about it. He was the expert, anyway.

I was about to go inside once more when I spotted Connie’s car. I tried to sharpen my sight so I could catch who was on the wheel. It was hard to believe Connie would park his car so smoothly.

From inside the vehicle came out Bertholdt, Reiner, Connie and Jean. I was surprised they were all together. Bertholdt would rarely join our hangouts, even when Reiner tried to push him into it. And I was obviously even more surprised when I saw them cast their eyes on me, just to walk over in the following fifteen seconds.

I took a peek at Levi from above my shoulder. He was already behind the balcony again. I didn’t want anything weird to happen so I would have to make that meeting quick.

“Hey, Eren, my man!” Connie greeted before he slapped my back. “Last time I saw you there were two of you.”

“Last time I saw you, we were drunk.” I told him, trying to be subtle about it.

Reiner and Bert joined a few seconds later with Jean right behind them.

“Hey, Eren”, Reiner greeted; shoving his hand right in front of me so I could shake it. I did, and he was quick to pull his tall friend right in front of me to do the exact same thing.

When Jean’s turn came, he just looked at me. I nodded at him just slightly and he did the same. Acknowledges done, no need for anything else.

“So this is where you work?” Connie threw in as he stepped back, trying to catch a good perspective of the whole store.

“Temporarily”, I said. “Yes, it is.”

Reiner crossed his arms and looked up at the logo. “I never imagined myself saying this, but it does fit you. Even if it’s just temporary…”

I took the chance to throw a look at Levi. It wasn’t hard to feel the daggers coming out from his eyes and piercing my back. I tried to look as apologetic as I could, however, Bert caught my attention again.

“For how long will you stay here?”

I blinked. “Ahm… tomorrow is my last day. Next week, if I’m lucky, I’m going to start working somewhere else.”

“Oh, right. Jean told us about that.” I was surprised he did.

“Right… Well, don’t you guys have classes?”

“I’m skipping…” Connie threw in a singing voice.

“Same.” Jean mumbled from the back, probably more interested in the flowers from our display.

“We’re in free period.” Reiner said, pointing at both him and Bert. “We thought we’d pass by as well when Connie said he was going to visit.”

Turns out all they wanted was to chit-chat. Reiner and Jean were far more interested in getting something to eat than to stick around, and the only problem was to convince Connie I had other things to do than to listen to his rambling monologue about how boring his classes were.

The growing tension between me and Jean wasn’t helping either. It seems we had silently agreed not to talk to each other ever since what happened back at his house. Of course, it was only a matter of time before he decided to start picking on me for every little thing, but for now we were both just cool with the silence treatment and, luckily, Connie wasn’t shrewd enough to notice that the wrath that fuelled the flame of our continuous rivalry was temporarily extinguished.

Before they left, however, Reiner didn’t refrain from pulling me into a more private conversation. “I’m sorry to bring this up all of a sudden, but have you been with Annie lately?”

I blinked at him as slowly as I could just to make it more dramatic. “Why would I be with Annie…? No, we’re not even friends.”

“Oh, I see…”

“Why?”

Reiner gave me a sheepish look. “Oh, no reason. It’s just… we haven’t seen her around lately.”

I really didn’t want to guess why, but my guts were already twisting inside. “Well, you better ask Mikasa, then.”

From what I knew, when we were still all in high school, Annie, Reiner and Bert used to be really close. There was even the rumor of a possible love-triangle between the three, but it was never confirmed to be true. Yet, after they left each one for their own faculty, Annie had been really distant from them and therefore the whole group too. If it wasn’t for the birthday parties when everyone would gather around as an excuse to see each other again, Annie would basically only hang out with Mikasa. Then again, despite her popularity, Mikasa was never given to big deviations on what was her group of friends: me, Armin and her.

Reiner just patted my back and gave me that smile of his always ready for any sort of situation before he left after the other three.

Containing a sigh was necessary, socializing was really exhausting and I was starting to miss my lone moments when I could be at home and do nothing for a whole day until Mikasa got back. Still, I knew the more I thought about it the more I’d want it, so I refrained from doing so.

When I got back inside, Levi had his hands around what could be considered a prototype of a new arrangement. I leaned against the doorframe, watching him. There was something quite soothing about how those thin yet long fingers of his worked on those plants as if they were the most fragile things in the universe. And I was so concentrated in following his movements that I almost forgot breathing was necessary.

“Oh my god! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” Hanji jumped into the room, waving her arms as if she was making signals for an airplane to land above us. “Oh! Levi, you gotta stop by today! I’m trying something out!”

“Try what out?” Levi asked without taking his eyes out of his work.

“Cooking!” The brunette replied, bumping her fist on her chest as if that was some sort of salute. “I need someone with a picky mouth to test it out. I’m also inviting Erwin.”

“Erwin lives with you, you don’t necessarily need to invite him. More like he doesn’t have a choice. I, on the other hand, am just going to say no. You know what happened last time you decided to cook.”

“Geh. Levi, you’re such a cockblock!”

Levi finally looked at her. “What?”

“Come on! I’m also inviting Eren!” Hanji threw me a shit-eating grin. “Wanna come have dinner at my place?”

I knew that denying her offer would be the same as digging my own grave, so of course I said I’d go. Still, while Hanji happily dug back into her studio, I couldn’t help but satisfy my curiosity with Levi. “What happened last time she cooked…?”

The dramatic sound of his scissor cutting the ends of a rose made me flinch. Levi raised his eyes to mine and lowered his head enough to give the idea there something dark floating around him. “I got hives on my skin…”

Right, that wasn’t exactly nice.

Mikasa wasn’t home when I dropped by to take a quick shower, so I texted her saying I wouldn’t dine together with her.

The deal was that I’d meet with Erwin by the time he closed the shop and then we’d make a quick visit to the supermarket just to get some drinks and whichever ingredients were missing.

Mikasa texted back when I had finished showering, saying she would probably stay up until late to study and that it would be kind of me to bring back something to eat before I got home.

My wardrobe wasn’t quite the fashionable piece. Not if we were talking about its content. Between light jeans to dark ones, a couple of hoodies, one or two sweaters and a bunch of t-shirts, there wasn’t much for me to pick. Even considering my upcoming interview, Armin would be the one I’d borrow a white shirt from, since I had none of my own.

I opted to pick just something random, as standard, even though there was a slight unusual worry about what I’d dress. I just opted not to overthink the origin of my sudden stress and slipped in a white t-shirt and my Rolling Stones’ grey hoodie above some dark jeans. Then, I stayed about ten minutes looking at my won reflection on our bathroom’s mirror.

I was definitely stressing over outfits, and that was highly alarming.

Erwin had a better sense of time than anyone else. It was exactly eight o’clock when he closed down the shop. Since winter was approaching, the days were getting shorter, and it was already chilly enough outside at that hour.

“Did you wait for too long?” He asked me as he motioned to where his truck had been parked that afternoon. “We still have to drop by the supermarket.”

I shook my head. “No… and yeah, sure.”

Between the three of them, Erwin was the one I’d spoken to the less. Hanji and Levi had a really approachable personality, despite Levi’s constant constipated face and bristly mood, but Erwin was somehow so distant from everything and everyone around him that made him sort of uncomfortable to be alone with. I guess what made him likable was his kind character.

We didn’t talk much on our way to the supermarket. Despite the usual questions about my mother and family status, we didn’t really talk about anything else. There was, however, a brief conversation about the drinks he’d buy. I learned, in the process, that Levi was rather picky with wines and that Hanji couldn’t handle alcohol that well. In my defense, I added I preferred white wine to the usual, and that’s what we ended up buying—along with a big package of basmati rice and a few natural yogurts.

Hanji and Erwin lived on the ending edge of Trost, the district wasn’t that big but it was still a good hour to cross it from one edge to another by foot. By car, with all the traffic we faced, took us almost half an hour to get there.

It was a small complex of buildings, all pretty futuristic with three floors each. Hanji and Erwin lived on the second floor of the orange building, and Levi lived on the third floor—he had a big terrace just for himself.

Hanji was leaning over her window, waving her arms at us when we parked in front of their house. “Took you long! I was wondering if you’d kidnapped Eren and had sold him to the black market!”

Both Erwin and I laughed. After all, once we called Hanji out on her exaggerations, she was a very funny fellow.

“Exchange him for tea.”

My eyes almost lit up when I heard Levi’s voice coming from above Hanji.

“Oh, Levi!” The brunette shouted. “Coming down?”

He dragged out of his cigarette and then tossed it away before going back in. “No fucking way. Have fun.”

“That was a compliment.” Erwin told me while he dragged the plastic bags out of the vehicle.

“I know.”

There was already a really nice scent coming from their apartment once the elevator reached the second floor. I started to salivate even before Erwin opened the door, letting the air from inside leave a very distinct smell all around me when he did. Chili…

Hanji rushed to Erwin the moment he got in. “Oh my god, the yogurt. Ok. Bring that to the kitchen.”

Their apartment was really nice and cozy. After passing the main hall, there was the living room, with a door leading straight to the kitchen. The table was set for four people and the TV was on the news channel. It was sort of adorable how each room was decorated with a different color; I could only guess it was Erwin’s doing. The living room, for instance, was white and orange, and the kitchen was white and green.

“Eren, make yourself comfortable!” Hanji shouted above the noise of something frying up in a pan. “This will be done in about thirty minutes!”

Making myself comfortable wasn’t an easy task. I knew I was a bit upright about whatever involved unknown places, so I was left wandering around the living room, and ended up on their balcony.

Despite the cold, the sky was quite clear. I leaned on the curb and looked up, somehow trying to make that winter-y fog appear, but it wasn’t cold enough yet.

“Enjoying the view?” Hanji asked, patting my back and she leaned next to me.

I chuckled. “Well, it’s a nice house.”

“Thank you! Erwin picked it and I fell in love with it at first sight. Then—” She laughed. “—we brought the mascot and the moving was done.”

“I suppose you’re talking about Levi…”

Hanji shrugged. “He’s the youngest.”

I bit my lower lip, trying to contain the urge to make some smart-assed comment about what she’d said. Not that it was necessary, but considering how Levi was so decent about everything, I found the need to imagine him in funny situations even more.

“What about you?” She asked. “You can pretend it’s nothing but I’ve noticed how you keep checking him out…”

That was something I wasn’t expecting. Usually I’d go all defensive about it, trying to avoid it, saying it wasn’t true. Yet, this time, all I could do was keep looking straight forward without moving a finger. It wasn’t because I was embarrassed—even though I was—but because I was afraid I’d lose some credibility once she knew—once they knew that different aspect about my character.

Hanji waved her hand in front of my eyes. “Wooh? Are you there? Come on, I’m not Levi. I won’t just kick your ass. You can talk to me.”

My eyebrows twitched somehow and I finally looked at her. Knowing Hanji, the possibilities of her talking about it without any sort of consideration were quite high, but I could also be judging her too much there. She was, after all, Levi’s best friend. And it was hard to believe Levi would trust her that much unless she could be dependable. If I decided to trust her, it would be because I trusted Levi. No matter for how long we’d known each other, he was the kind to inspire confidence.

I wasn’t exactly living in a world where everyone liked others of the same sex. Even though there seemed to be a really big community, I felt pretty much alone when it came down to it. Maybe it was my fault; I didn’t exactly search for anything of the sorts. Then again, maybe I wasn’t confident enough about my own choices. And that’s why the first thing that popped up in my head was that Levi could very well not share my interests in that matter. Actually, I was almost sure he didn’t.

“Do you like him?” There was a certain curiosity in Hanji’s eyes, even though the grin was long gone by now, she seemed genuinely interested in my answer.

And the truth was that I had no idea. I just knew I was interested and that somehow watching him, talking to him just to watch his tiny reactions, for how small they were, was starting to get too addicting. And at that point, I was wondering what would happen when I left the flower shop just to go back to being the usual costumer of the weekend. Maybe the point Levi and I reached would never be what I liked to fantasize about sometimes.

“I don’t know.” Was my answer.

“You don’t know.” Hanji nodded as she said it. There was a moment of silence where all I could hear was my own heartbeat and, then, she spoke again. “Then, when you find out… come talk to me. There’s something you should know if you decide to follow that path.”

Somehow, there was something about her expression that reminded me of Levi. I couldn’t read her, just like I couldn’t read him most of the time. Considering I was the one with my emotions always under my skin, it was sort of frustrating when others didn’t do it as well.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Finally, Hanji cracked a smile. “Well, you’re probably worrying too much and you’re not even aware of it. But with Levi, that’s not what you should be worrying about. There’s this really famous quote from Socrates: _Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down_. And that’s what defines Levi.” She lowered her tone. “What I am trying to say is that if that interest of yours builds into something else, I hope you have packed up enough will to move forward with it.”

I laughed. “I’m pretty sure it’s rewarding at some point.”

“Oh, you can bet your life on it.”

Erwin came in the balcony a few moments later, finally breaking the awkward silence the whole conversation left. “Hanji, you should go check that pot.”

“Already? Wee, time flies.” She rushed inside, almost bumping into him. But then she stopped and turned around. “Oh, one of you, please, go get that rat out of his house. I’m pretty sure he’s eating tobacco like crazy and that’s not even healthy.”

Erwin sighed. “You go tell him that.”

“What? He won’t listen to me. Just… huh, just to get him, Erwin.”

“I’ll go.” I said.

Both of them looked at me for a few seconds before Hanji went back to the kitchen, leaving me with Erwin and his stare. It probably sounds stupid, but I always thought he could see right through me sometimes.

“Up the stairs, first door on the right.” He told me. “Ring the bell twice or he won’t open.”

Wow, Levi had a code. In reality, it made sense. I’d heard Armin say unknown people usually only ring once at a time. Psychology was just amazing sometimes.

I sort of jogged while climbing the stairs, but that playful side died once I found myself standing on Levi’s door. There was that sixth sense feeling, telling me to just turn around and go away because the possibility of dying in the next few seconds was above 100%. Still, I rang the bell twice and waited. There was a rather interesting music coming from inside the house, but I couldn’t tell which band was playing.

As expected, Levi opened the door with that _fuck you_ look plastered all over his face. “I thought I said I wouldn’t go.” He mumbled between his teeth.

There were tons of things I could have said instead, so of course I mentally slapped myself after mumbling “But I want you there with us.” _Ain’t I a gorgeous fuck-up? Nice going, Eren._

Levi regarded me with that standard half-look of his for a while. “What’s for dinner?” He asked.

“Chili, it seems.”

He considered for a few more seconds, until the music was finally over and there was no other sound around apart from our own breathing. “Fine, but if I get sick I am so not stepping into that shop tomorrow.” He groaned as he grabbed his keys from the shelf on the entrance.

From what I could see from where I was standing, his place was really neat. As expected of someone like Levi.

I couldn’t believe it had that outcome after I said something like that. Still, I was winning there, wasn’t I? “What song was that?” I asked him as we made our way down the stairs.

“ _Inhaler_ by the Foals. Pretty cool band, I think it’s your style.”

Right, Levi knew about my music preferences.

Turned out, that Hanji was really good at cooking. Even among Levi’s toilet humor was notable some sort of acceptance towards her good job in the kitchen. And of course my mood also improved after my stomach was satisfied.

After dinner, and a long conversation about politics, while Erwin demonstrated his fantastic knowledge over cooking, in general, Hanji was trying to redeem herself by teaching me how to dance to her new Daft Punk album. Levi was sitting on the couch, keeping an eye on us but also listening to Erwin’s monologue about Hanji’s chili.

“It’s a really classic dish.” The man kept saying. “I usually love the chickpeas, but butter beans or even cubed potatoes will work well in their place. You should try that next time, Hanji.”

“Consider it noted down—so now your hand stays here, like this, get it? Loosen up, Eren!”

I was terrified by the way she was suddenly holding my hands, trying to make me move. “You keep saying that but… Ugh. I wasn’t born for this.”

Hanji laughed. “I wasn’t either, but that’s the point.” She looked down at our feet. “Are those shoes or rocks, Eren?”

“Last time I checked, they were shoes…” I was more worried about the figure I was making than exactly Hanji’s jokes about how stiff I was.

Meanwhile, Erwin had managed to stop talking about food. Instead, he was looking at us with a really heavy stare. It made me wonder if at some point I was doing something I shouldn’t. Then, he suddenly got up—I swear I kinda jumped when he did, even more when Levi was just grinning at some spot on the carpet—and stepped towards the stereo.

“Why are you changing songs?” Hanji asked, looking rather lost when _Get Lucky_ stopped half way through.

“Well, since you’re so into the new stuff lately, I thought about this.” He said, looking quite happy with his choice of song when it actually started playing.

“Oh my god, that’s _Happy_!” Hanji was quick to let me go and flying to Erwin as fast as ever. “Dance with me!” She pleaded as she tried to get his hands.

Erwin agreed, and I couldn’t be happier to have been left alone. Truth to be told, they danced good enough to please me. I found myself smiling at how freely she danced. Erwin, on the other hand, was a bit more upright, but he seemed to be having fun enough.

I was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, looking at them, when I felt something poke my arm. For much of my surprise and dismay, Levi was standing next to me, not even facing my judges, crossing his arms with a hand raised at me.

Took me a while to even consider taking it since I was busier trying to find out why there was a sudden increase of my heartbeats. When finally did, though, Levi turned to me while looking at our feet and took my other hand. He was just softly pushing forward and backwards so there was some movement. I also wanted to look down, so I wouldn’t step on him, but my eyes wouldn’t go lower than his neck.

“So…” He started as he pulled us apart just to make me awkwardly spin under his arm. It was a hard task, since I was taller. “You did mention the other day that you didn’t have any sort of white shirt to go to the interview on Tuesday… right?”

I nodded, but only then reminded he wasn’t looking at me. “Yes.” This time, however, I was the one to pull us apart to make him spin under my arm.

And Levi did, slowly and as gracelessly as I did, but he did. “I was thinking that’s pretty shitty.” He looked at me for a brief moment and then his eyes rushed down again. “I mean, I know Mike considers a lot the looks and all… oh, and you need to smell good too, if you want to cause a good impression.”

I was suddenly feeling uneasy as I remembered what Hanji had told me that morning. “Do I smell bad or something?” I probably sounded worried, because Levi looked at me again.

“No, not really… The point is, you better sho—wait, that’s not what I wanted to say. Shut the fuck up.” Even though he was being abrasive, he didn’t push me away. Yet, he only went on after Hanji and Erwin sort of made pass down their arm-bridge. “The point is—and fuck you if you don’t accept it—it would be stupid to ask your friend to let you borrow his shirt whenever you needed one. Plus, their uniform requires a white collar shirt so yeah, I got you one.”

My eyes widened and I stopped wandering around, grabbing his wrists to make him look at me. “You got me a shirt?” I asked, incredulous.

He blinked. “Is that a problem?”

“Well, he sort of made me check the size of your shirt when you spilled dirt on it the other day.” Hanji mumbled displeased with the idea, as Erwin started grabbing her in a more pretentious way for the song that came next.

First of all, I wasn’t expecting any of them to even care about my upcoming interview. Even though we were able to stand next to each other and worked together, it didn’t mean we had to start supporting one another just because. Second, of all people, Levi was the one I less expected something from.

“But… why? I didn’t ask—”

Levi rolled his eyes and then kicked my knee. “Start getting passionate and I’ll kick your sorry ass. Just accept it.”

“Ok…”

“Anyway, I planned on giving it to you today, but I forgot. I left it at the shop so remind me to give it to you tomorrow.” As he finally stepped away, his fingers ran down my arm making me shiver. I knew it was just a coincidence, but I wanted to believe it wasn’t.

Hanji and Erwin came closer in some large dancing steps and she bumped her hips on mine. “Thank me too! I was the one who stopped Levi from killing the shop assistant when he went to buy it.”

I laughed. “Oh. Thanks, then.”

When she turned to hug me, she pulled Levi along by his neck. He clumsily stumbled back, bumping against my chest and staying quiet while Hanji proceeded with the squeezing part. “D’aww, my babies are so cute. Eren, you better win that interview.”

Erwin laughed. “I’m afraid interviews are not something you can win.”

“Ah! It doesn’t matter, Eren wins everything!”

I really did try. I swear I tried to ignore how we were all somehow pasted together, Levi fitting perfectly against me and Hanji squeezing us together enough to make my nose brush against his hair. Still, it was impossible, and I soon got overwhelmed by the whole situation.

Erwin was the one to take me home. Somehow, Hanji ended up dead on her sofa after dancing until almost midnight, and Levi seemed quite interested in the news channel.

I was someway angry at myself on the way back. Even when we stopped by McDonalds so I could get something for Mikasa, my mood didn’t improve even one bit. And if there was something disturbing about the way my anger worked was that I would always use it to fuel other aspects far more important to me through it.

When I got home, I threw the McDonalds package above the kitchen’s table, waking up Mikasa—she was sleeping above the table—in the process, and rushed to my room to lock the door behind me.

I threw myself on the bed and inhaled hard enough to hurt. My brain was definitely a mess. I knew I was interested, I knew it from the start. But after being denied whatever I wanted to happen through that interest of mine, all I could think about was what I wouldn’t be able to get. And it wasn’t just something physical anymore. Because the forbidden was always the most wanted, I was in a serious state of want. Even more when to get through it, all my mind could pull out of my subconscious was the scene from that night. Of course, my brain only clicked when I finally came in my hand, panting like an idiot and wishing to be dead.

“Goddamn it, Eren…” I whispered to myself.

Of course, it could only get worse. And it got worse, when I woke up in the next morning with a huge stomachache.

“What the hell did you eat last night?” Mikasa asked me as she patted my back. I’d been in the bathroom all over the toilet since I had woken up.

“Well, I—” My phone started ringing in my room.

Mikasa got up, most likely intending to go get it. I turned around when she got back, whipping the thread of saliva with my fist.

“Who is it…?”

She furrowed her brows. “Some Levi…”

I got up in a jump and snapped the phone from her hands, picking it up in less than second. I had no idea why I was doing that, but I knew I was suddenly feeling guilty about how I’d been jerking off while thinking about him just the night before. “Yeah?”

Mikasa crossed her arms and glared at me.

 _“In a scale from 1 to 10, how sick are you?”_ Levi asked on the other side of the line.

I blinked. “Well… I think I’m giving it a 10… is it—?”

 _“Yes…”_ He groaned. _“That four-eyes… She’s done it again…”_

My stomach twisted somehow and I had to swallow dry to keep myself from puking whatever I had not eaten yet. “I’ve been like this for two hours…” I said. And it was only nine in the morning.

_“Don’t mention. I can’t walk for even 10 meters without needing to rush to the toilet right after… It’s fucking annoying.”_

“Sounds bad…” I huffed.

_“It looks like I swallowed a fucking dragon and now it is breathing fire through my ass.”_

Giving intentional meaning to the wording was something I was learning to avoid when talking to Levi. “How’s Erwin…? And Hanji, is she ok?”

Levi growled. _“The fuck I care about Hanji. And Erwin is fine. He digests Viagra like milk and nothing ever happens.”_ Then again, trying to give any sort of meaning to that was out of question. Though I was left thinking in what situation had Erwin ever taken Viagra in front of Levi. _“Anyway…”_ He went on. _“Don’t you dare to show up at work today… Shitty-glasses is doing our shifts.”_

“Ok, but what about the shirt?”

 _“Pass by the flower shop on Tuesday, before you go to the interview. Now, goodbye. I hate phone calls_.” And with that he hanged up. I would have considered that hella weird since he’d been the one calling in the first place. Anyhow, that was Levi. It was sort of expected.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fuck prooferead. Anyway, this chapter also works like a brigde for the next one. I feel evil for what's about to happen. But hey, let's blame Suzu, when terrible minds work together terrible things happen. That's why I left the tiny ereri moment at the end.  
> Also, sorry for being so jump-y with the POVs, but it's easier to tell the story this way. Plus, I wanted to give that dept I had mentioned before about Mikasa and Armin. And wow, Armin likes Annie?? What? Ok.
> 
> As for the flowers and their meanings:
> 
> Sunflower = touch of love/happiness

_(Eren)_

“Alright, all done. And stop tugging at it! You’ll make it go all wrinkly…” Levi slapped my hands after he finished fixing my tie. He stepped back, crossed his arms, and gave me a thoughtful look. “What do you think…?”

Hanji, who’d been bouncing back and forward above some chair, gave me a wink. “I’d eat you alive, Eren.” That wasn’t exactly at all comforting but I let her have the moment. “You’re all ready to go.”

For most of the past thirty minutes, while I dressed my new white collar shirt and got Levi to fix it for me, I’d been more nervous than I’d ever been previously in my life. I couldn’t recall ever being so stressed out before, not even for Hannes’ stupid tests during high school. Not only was I trying to deal with my fear over my soon-to-be failure of my job interview, but also dealing with the idea of trying to hide whatever dirty things I’d been doing all weekend at the thought of Levi. He could always read through me, and even though I highly believed reading minds was not his thing; who knows, right?

“I have a bad feeling about this…” I mumbled as I looked at my own reflection in the mirror from the dressing room. “I’m a fuck up. I’m going to fuck it up.”

“Wow…” Hanji shook her head. “All that negativity… I think you and Levi need to cut ties. His depression is hitting you.”

Levi looked at her, mostly annoyed. “Since when am I depressed, you freak?”

She closed her eyes and smiled. “All that love makes me wonder…” Her finger shot up as if pointing at some invisible particle floating in the air. “Let me replay Sunday’s conversation in my head… Oh, Oh—” Levi was rolling his eyes at her. “—as Erwin mentions Eren’s new post job, Levi says he probably won’t even show up at the shop anymore… as you said, _that insufferable brat._ ”

There was a moment of silence while I stared between Hanji and Levi. The first was just content with her little intervention, while Levi seemed about to hang himself for the ultimate revelation. On my behalf, all I could think about was how happy and yet stupefied I was.

“I’ll show up whenever I can.” I said. “You guys helped me tons, so it’s not like I’ll just disappear from your lives just like that.” I crossed my arms and grinned at Levi. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

He frowned at me. “I have a feeling we’re growing a fucking cocky plant… You’re getting bolder by the day. What the fuck are you high on?”

“You’re getting more talkative by the day.” I shot back.

“What? I always talk my own share, you piece of shit.” He threw his arm to point at the door. “Now get the fuck going, it’s almost time.”

I wanted to throw in some smart-assed remark about how he spent most of the time playing either _Boost Light_ or _Flappy Bird_ on his phone, but I figured it was time to let the conversation die there, or I would, indeed, get to arrive late.

I bid my goodbyes and said enough thank you(s) before rushing out of the shop.

 

_(Mikasa)_

I was waiting for Eren in the car; along with Armin, who seemed to be quite interested in that old book Eren ended up shoving over the window some minutes after we got there. We had both agreed to skip classes that day so we could give my brother some moral support. He was in need of it. He’d been eating double the whole weekend until then, of course we’d worry.

“This is pretty amazing.” He threw in after a while.

“What is?”

Armin gave me a quick look. “Never thought flowers could be interesting.”

I chuckled. Everything was interesting to him as long as it had any sort of meaning behind it. Armin was just like that. Eren wasn’t any different, though.

“I might ask Eren to borrow it. I need some light reading…”

The book was actually huge. If he called that a light reading, I didn’t want to know what was a heavy reading. “Weren’t you reading some other book, though? That one about… Ahm…”

“Gravity!” He slapped his lap. “Anti-gravity, actually. It's impossible to put down.”

I gave Armin a blunt stare, fuelled by the fact he had just used a pun. A really bad pun, to tell the truth… He didn’t notice me, though.

Actually, it was disturbing, but Eren had recently been one to throw in bad puns all of a sudden as well, mostly when we were at home. The worst one was probably when we were watching some old Disney movies during the weekend, and he pitched in “When Peter Pan punches, they Neverland.” I almost wanted to kill him for that. Not that Eren was dumb, but he was never one to do that. Recently, he had been on a roll, though. And now, Armin seemed to be catching the habit too—or maybe he just didn’t even notice what he’d done. However. I did have this gut feeling; telling me the origin of that whole messed up situation was somehow related to those people Eren was spending most of his time with.

I took a quick look over the window, only to see Eren exit the flower shop—finally—and head towards the back of the car. He flung the door open and got in without a word. I was looking at him over the rearview mirror when his eyes rolled up to meet my stare.

“What…” He finally opened his mouth.

“That looks good on you.” I said.

Eren averted his eyes. “Huh… Thanks.” How cute.

“Hey, Eren.” Armin turned around in his seat to face Eren while I started the engine to get us going out of there. “Do you mind if I borrow this for a while—oh, wow, you should dress like that more often…?” He was waving that old book in one of his hands.

“Well, that’s not mine…” Eren mumbled.

“You know… it’s not like I’ll break it or anything…”

“We could look at it together.” I looked at Eren over the mirror to see him shrug. “It’s just… Levi is sort of picky, so… Yeah.”

“This is Levi’s?” Armin asked.

“Who’s Levi?” I asked.

Eren huffed. “No one.” He shrugged off. “Watch the road.” He instructed. It was annoying when he did that.

 

_(Eren)_

If what I had noted down over my previous phone call with the owner of the restaurant was correct, then, we were there. Rainbow Pagoda was its name. I sort of sneered at it, but Mikasa said it was cute. Armin opted to stay quiet about it, but I got the cue. It was just a sushi restaurant, with a tiny bar at the back.

I leaned back on my seat and took a quick breath. My heart was suddenly all over the place. “I’m so going to fuck this up.”

Armin groaned. “Oh my god, Eren. Shut up and get going.”

“I still have, what, ten minutes left!” I looked quite pitiful.

He just rolled his eyes and turned back to the front. “You’re stressing _me_ out.”

Mikasa, who seemed perfectly alright over the whole situation, motioned to the radio to turn it on. As if that was of any help, _Timber_ started so loud I almost felt my eardrums shrink at the first beat. Not that Kesha’s voice was bad, but there was a limit to how loud one wanted to hear her scream. She sure had the _timber_.

“I think I just lost something…” Armin mumbled once she lowered the volume. Maybe his capacity to hear.

“I’m so deaf.” I said.

“Eren,” Mikasa started, “after this song ends, you have exactly five minutes to get going.”

Oh, great. I was nervous again. “Thanks. I’m feeling so much better right now.” That was it, though, that did it. Of course I wouldn’t want to wait for the end of the song, because that would only stress me out even more. So I just hauled myself out of the car and stumbled awkwardly across the street until my feet planted themselves in front of the restaurant’s door. Obviously, the door was locked. It was still early in the morning. So I just went around and tried to get in through the bar.

The back of the building was rather creepy. I kept imagining that would be one of those places where someone would get murdered in a CSI episode. The bar was indeed open, though. There was some trash waiting to be _trashed away_ by the door, so I had to stumble over it to get inside.

The environment was indeed off-putting. I had never visited anything to classy in my life before. Everything was clean, and in its rightful place. Typical Japanese-like bar—I had no idea what Japanese bars were like—however, there was no one inside.

Good kids would probably wait around for someone to show up, I—I wasn’t a good kid; I wasn’t even a kid, even though I had somehow grown fondly attached to the nickname —just walked around as if that place was for show.

Finding someone was top-priority, so I wandered around, somehow bumping against some door by mistake and making it drop open. What I saw next was _seriously_ off-putting.

It was a tiny room, full of boxes, a shelf with name tags on it, and a table in the middle. But that wasn’t what dropped me off. What dropped me off was the fact that there were two girls in some very sexual position above the table, staring at me as if they’d just seen a ghost. I tried to ignore that the tiny girl, the one being pinned down, was about to get off her pants, and concentrated my judges on the taller girl. My finger rose to point at her.

“Ah! It’s you.” I shot in.

She threw me a pout. “Ah, Mikasa’s little brother. What’s up?” It was disturbing because they weren’t moving from that position, like normal people would. The little one did seem ready to run away, though.

I limited myself to stare, but Ymir, I remembered, shot her eyebrow up in that questioning look that suddenly reminded me of Levi.

“I’m… job interview…” That was lame. Sometimes, I could really be a lame excuse of a person.

She looked up at the celling as if considering what I had just said and then looked back at me with a grin threatening to curl her lips up. “Ah, yes.” A pause. “Will you just keep staring? ‘Cause… I’d love to chit chat but, as you can see, I’m sorta busy. ‘Nless you wanna join, please, do shut the door.”

I didn’t hesitate. I did shut the door, but I still heard the other girl retort something to the weird and disgusting suggestion. My brain was quick to make the click and I just ran off. I’d had enough for a day. Yet, I ended up bumping into someone by exit; and I only got a hold of the whole situation when the man spoke.

“You must be Eren.” He said, giving a sniff at the air.

I blinked at him, heart in my hands. “Yes…”

The man smirked. “My name is Mike Zacharius. Welcome to the Rainbow Pagoda.”

 

_(Armin)_

“Remember when Skrillex was a thing?” I threw in just to break the awkward silence.

Mikasa huffed. “Oh my god, don’t.”

“That New Year’s eve when Connie made us listen to that Katy Perry song dubstep version of Skrillex… I still have nightmares about it.”

“I like to pretend it never happened.” She said.

“And your obsession over The Glitch Mob…” I laughed.

“That’s pretty good, shut up.”

I looked down at the book resting over my lap. My brain wasn’t exactly registering the words anymore. I was somehow lost in my own nostalgia. And that’s when I reminded myself of something and turned around on my seat to face Mikasa next to me. “Oh my… Remember that thing… Huh, Tokyo Hotel?”

Her lips curled up a bit and she looked away. “Oh… Yeah. When Reiner said Bill was a cute girl and we laughed over that for hours.”

“Yeah…” My eyes dropped. “I miss those times.”

“Yeah.”

If I was a different person, I wouldn’t mind arranging my own birthday party. However, I would enjoy everyone’s birthday except mine. Celebrating my aging was not something cool for me. Of course, I always let Mikasa and Eren walk me around and take me to places we usually wouldn’t go to. I’d let them give me birthday presents because they were happy about it. But my birthday was something that was just that, an excuse to be together and do crazy things. That’s what I always looked forward to the most.

Still, there was something else coming up. Something worth an excuse to get us all together since Reiner’s birthday Party: Halloween.

“What are you planning to do on Halloween?” I asked, giving Mikasa a look by the corner of my eyes.

She shrugged. “Whatever you guys wanna do.”

“You’re not going anywhere with Annie…?”

Mikasa looked at me with a questioning look on her face. “Why would I go somewhere with Annie?”

Oh, boy. “Well… Eren tells me you two are quite close lately…”

She pondered it and, then, blinked. “We just share some interests. That’s all.”

“Do you like Annie?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I? She’s a good person.”

I shrugged. “Well, I don’t know about that… but ok.”

Mikasa wasn’t one to talk open up, I knew that. And even despite her platonic love over Eren, not even him would get the job of making her talk done. It wasn’t in my hands either, but still…. Because Mikasa was a person given to fair-exchanges of information… She’d give if she got some in return.

“There’s someone I like.” I blurted out, almost flinching at the wording.

Mikasa turned around completely, this time. I could feel her eyes searching me. Turns out, Eren wasn’t the only one she was so fondly protective of. “Who?” She asked in that accusatory tone of hers.

“Just someone.”

“You can’t think you’ll get away with just that.”

I shrugged, again. “At least I told you something… Just thought you should know…”

Mikasa crossed her arms and faced the front. She was frowning. Maybe she was thinking, because it took her a while to get the conversation going again. “Wow, ok… Who is it, though? Is it someone I know?”

“Maybe… Yes, probably. Yeah.”

“Wow, decide yourself... Ok?”

I pointed at myself and shot my eyebrows up just to be dramatic. “Equivalent exchange.”

She considered the whole thing for another long minute. “Ok… Ok.”

I looked at her. “Do you like Annie?” I tried again.

Mikasa made a very pained expression and then looked at me. “I thought I did. Not sure anymore… I mean, we’re friends… Thinking about it makes me tired, though.”

There was a brief moment of understanding between us until I broke the eye contact. “Thanks for telling me.”

“Sure…” She chuckled. She didn’t seem that certain, though.

 

_(Mikasa)_

I tried to overlook Armin’s sudden admission, even though part of me wanted to jump on him and torture his mind into telling me who was the girl he liked. It occurred to me it could be Annie for a split second. I mean, he was asking about her, right? And he ended up saying there was someone he liked.

I shook my head. I’d have to talk about it later with Eren. They were best friends, so my brother had to know something. Because if Armin was suddenly into Annie… If that was true, then, maybe I should also do something about it. Maybe I should help. Armin was like family after all…

Meanwhile, we spent most of the time making plans for Halloween. We considered spending it together, just the three of us. But Armin was very inclined to the idea of getting everyone together. I told him we’d have to talk to Eren about it, and maybe suggest it to Jean since he was the party guy, to what Armin seemed quite excited to do. To tell the truth, that saved me from a lot of trouble. The less I had to do, the better.

We also discussed his birthday. I knew it was a delicate subject to him, but everything ended up going in the right direction. I told him what Eren and I were planning to do, without telling him exactly where we’d go, and he seemed quite excited about it.

At some point, though, the conversation died and we were left each to our own thoughts.

I was almost dozing off, when a sudden tap on the window made both Armin and I jump in our seats. We both looked over my window to see Eren standing on the outside, giving us the sickest look I’d ever seen him wear—not even when he got actually sick.

Armin was the first to jump out of the car and dash towards Eren. They both grabbed each other’s arms quite forcefully, as if Armin was forcing some positive energy into my brother’s mind.

“Eren, are you alright?” I asked, head popping out of the vehicle. “You look sick.”

His eyes shifted to me in a robotic way before he looked back at Armin. “I feel like… throwing up.”

Armin panicked. “What? What’s wrong?! Are you actually sick?”

I got up and reached out for Eren, who seemed to be fainting at any moment soon. We dragged him to the back seats and sat him there. Armin gave him some water from one of the bottles by the door-sides.

“I think… it’s because I was so nervous the whole morning…” Eren finally said. He was so pale.

“Feeling better now?” Armin asked.

“Yeah… quite better.”

I jumped straight to the point. “How did it go…? The interview…?”

Eren’s eyebrows joined together. He took a deep breath before he spoke. “We forgot I need some… kind of file with my whole career until now and that shit…”

Armin and I exchanged a look. “Yeah… we forgot.” We said at the same time.

“Still,” I threw in right in the next second, “didn’t they like you? You didn’t get the job…?”

My brother started chuckling, then laughing in a creepy way, and ended up muffling the whole thing in his hands. “Ah…” He calmed down. “I’m so fucking glad I actually… Like, you have no idea.”

I shook him. “What? Eren, you’re not making any sense…”

When he finally took his hands away, I was startled to see he was crying. “I got the job…”

“You got the job.” I nodded.

Armin got up so quickly he ended up hitting his head against the car. “Ouch—Wow… wait. No! This is amazing! You got the job?”

“I got the job…” Eren said, still crying.

There was a moment of silence. Then, we all started laughing like crazy, except for Eren who was laughing and crying at the same time. He was such a toddler sometimes.

 

_(Eren)_

I thought about texting Hanji, thanking her for the huge help. I also thought about calling Levi and tell him I owed him the world. Armin and Mikasa kept distracting me, though. They were both as radiant as I was. And it was funny to find out that, despite everything, Mikasa was actually worried. She admitted she trusted me enough to know I’d make it through. Armin confessed he had his doubts. I wanted to kick him for that.

Between all the things my mind kept throwing in for me to tell them, I ended up describing the whole interview. I told him about Mike’s weird sniffing habits, and Armin laughed like crazy. Mikasa seemed more interested in my little encounter with Ymir and a girl I later came to know as Christa. They would be my partners in crime on the bar. After exchanging a few words, I realized they weren’t that bad. Ymir did get on my nerves a bit, though. Mikasa said it was normal. The petite blonde girl was ok, nevertheless.

After spending the rest of the morning at the mall, so I could actually buy some black pants and some shoes—the required uniform for work—and having lunch there as well, we ended up making our way to the hospital.

Visiting hour started after 2pm, so we arrived right on time. Of course, we wouldn’t be able to share with mom our happiness, since we’d lied to her about my job. We hoped, however, that it would be contagious enough to her. She had been kind of down recently. Deep down, I tried not to connect it with the fact I wasn’t already visiting every day like I’d been doing until quite recently.

When we got into the room, though, my eyes jumped straight to the big arrangement of sunflowers above the table. “Wow, mom.” I said, rushing in. “Who the hell got you these?” I was quick to get annoyed about how they were so outstanding that the arrangement I’d gotten from Levi seemed so dead close to it.

She rolled her head to me. Her skin was getting really yellowish. It wasn’t just her eyes anymore. “Oh…” Her voice was dry. “I don’t know. The card didn’t say…”

Armin sat down in the chair next to her bed, eyes on the flower. “They’re… really pretty.”

There was a card sitting between the flowers. I grabbed it and gave it a quick look. Of course, I didn’t lose much more time being annoyed. I’d seen those cards before. Plus, the letters E.H.L did mean a lot to me.

“What does it say?” Mikasa asked, trying to reach for the tiny piece of paper from behind. “Stay well, E.H.L.?” She read. “Who’s this?”

I gave Armin a look and he smiled at me. At least he got it.

“Well,” mom started when we all gathered around her, “how are you, my dears?”

“We’re great.” I said. “We all took… Ahm, the day.”

Armin laughed. “Exams will be up soon, we have to take the chances we got now.”

Mom smiled lightly. “I’m not going to get mad at you because I’m actually happy you visited. Otherwise, you know my opinion about skipping.

“It’s ok, Carla, we won’t get in any sort of trouble for it.”

“How are you…?” Mikasa asked. “Is it painful?”

Mom rolled her eyes to me first and, then, Mikasa. “It’s a bit. But I’d better be awake than asleep, at least for now.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. By the way…” Mom turned her head to look at Armin. “It’s almost your birthday, darling… How old will you be?”

Armin faked a smile and I almost wanted to laugh. “I will be 21…” How could one be worried about aging when he was just 21. I surely didn’t want to argue that with him in 10 years.

“Oh, my…  You’re all so grown up.” Mom chuckled. “And you’re all changing… growing up. You three make me so proud.”

There was a faint pain suddenly in my chest, but I shrugged it off. “We’re not that different.” I said.

“Oh, yes you are…” She replied. “And you, my son, more than anyone else. You’ve been happy, lately. I’m so glad…”

I bit my lower lip. “How can you say that…?” Mikasa and Armin looked up at me but I ignored them. “I don’t even visit that often lately and—”

Mom’s eyebrow shot up. “And I’m really glad about that. I was just waiting to catch Mikasa alone… I’d so tell her to kick some sense into that head of yours.”

I looked away and she smiled. “Hm…” If I wasn’t already in a good mood, that would have turned into a fight. I was glad it didn’t. I was really glad it didn’t.

And, despite feeling suddenly guilty about it, we ended up leaving an hour later at my request. We ended up at Armin’s house. Mikasa was helping his grandfather with the laundry while Armin and I had fun with his cats.

“You’re just starting to accept it…” Armin said after a while. I knew what he was talking about. “She knows it, we know it… and you know it. You probably haven’t noticed it yet… but you tend to talk about your mother in past tense a lot lately…”

I looked at him. “I know… Somehow, I know… but I can’t help but feel… like shit because of that. It shouldn’t be like that… It’s like I’m giving up on her, and that’s so wrong.”

Armin shrugged. “You’re not giving up. You’re moving on.”

“Maybe… It still sucks.”

“Take things slowly. You’ll be able to mourn over that. Right now, you have to be happy.”

I nodded, and gave it a thought. Armin was usually always right, and I agreed with him over that one. But I knew… I knew that the more I started to build my own life, the more I would be letting go. It was the right course of things, but I just couldn’t shrug it off. “There’s someone I wanna see…” I said; eyes cast down.

“Is it Levi?”

“You think you can distract Mikasa later?”

Armin shrugged. “I think so. We can watch some movie, order some pizza. You want pizza?”

I smiled and nodded. “I’d like some pizza.”

“Yeah, it’s always better than the food made at this house, anyway.”

 

_(Levi)_

Erwin could be really annoying sometimes. I’d been waiting for him for about half an hour, but he wouldn’t just let go of that goddamned phone. I had no idea who he was talking to, but it was already past 8pm and I seriously wanted to go home.

I was outside, sitting on the sidewalk above his bag, smoking my fifth cigar, when my eyes landed on a known face by the other side of the street. Eren was there, giving me some really deep look. I ended up raising an eyebrow at him, but of course in that distance and darkness it was impossible to see.

Finally, he decided to cross over and sat next to me. I was looking at him since I wasn’t expecting him to be quiet. However, he really didn’t talk. I started to guess the worst.

“Did you get your ass kicked?” I asked, extinguishing my cigar on the asphalt.

Eren shrugged. He wasn’t looking at me. “No. I got the job.”

So he got the job. There was no reason to be moody. I noticed he still had the shirt on. It did fit him, to be honest. I could only imagine the bar’s uniform would suit him even more. He wasn’t bad to look at, after all.

I turned my head to look over my shoulder. Erwin was still on the phone. “So…” I started before I turned back to the front. “What’s eating you?”

“You sent flowers to my mother.” He said. That couldn’t be bothering him; he wasn’t showing any sort of emotion about it.

“We got some pretty sunflowers, so Erwin thought it was a good idea. Everyone likes sunflowers.”

“True. They were pretty.” He paused and, finally, looked at me. “Thank you.”

“Sure.”

We stayed in silence for a few more seconds until he talked again. “Do you think… Is it ok to… Hum, is it ok to…?” He sighed. His eyebrows were frowning so much, he looked quite pained. “Armin says it’s normal. He says it’s normal to move on and let it go… But it’s not like it’s over yet, and I feel responsible for it in a way.”

“What are you talking about?”

Eren sighed again and groaned. Then, he turned to me. “Can you, please, kick my ass?”

I blinked. “Alright… let’s start this again, I’m really lost.” Now, I sighed. “How was the interview? I thought you’d text.”

“I wanted to… but… I thought I was going to be annoying. Plus, Armin and Mikasa were with me so I sort of—”

“Forgot.” I completed.

“Yeah, sorry…”

“Don’t,” I shrugged. “At least you got the job. That’s good.”

“Yeah…” He trailed off. “I met two lesbians first thing…”

“Oh? You didn’t strike me as homophobic.” I chuckled.

Eren groaned, again. “I’m not…” He paused. “Then, I went to visit mom at the hospital.”

So that was what the whole mood was about. It made sense. I understood where he was coming from, but at the same time I didn’t. “If you are seriously going to worry over that shit, I might as well just kick your ass.”

He laughed. “Please do…”

“Oh, I will. You’re prioritizing your old and sick mother over your young and healthy happiness. Think again, kid. I will seriously kick your ass.”

Eren frowned. “It just… I feel guilty.”

“It feels selfish, I know. But if you start worrying about that you’re doomed. You’re the center of your own universe, never forget that. So in your point of view, everything moves in order for you to happen. If moving on improves you, you might as well start doing that.” Oh great, now I was giving advice.

Eren looked at me. He looked quite serious. “You do say some really deep shit sometimes…”

I glared at him. “Judging me, kid?”

“No… Not really. I’m just surprised, and not really at the same time.” He laughed. “Do you think I could come over?”

He didn’t mean harm, but of course I wouldn’t let him in my house. “Hanji’s, yes… I can live with that. She was eager to watch some movie anyway. When do you start working?”

“Next week. Monday… You could stop by.”

“Yes, I could. But I won’t.”

Eren elbowed me. “Eh… not cute.”

Was that brat calling me cute? I’d had enough with Hanji over that subject, I didn’t him joining in. “Shut the fuck up. Of course I will show up.”

“Yeah, I know… I just wanted you to admit it.”

“Ah, you’re fucking with me, brat.”

Eren grinned. “I hadn’t reached that point, yet.”

Luckily for him, Erwin was already outside closing the shop and joined in just in time. Otherwise, Eren would probably have died right there. I didn’t mind flirty comments, but there was something about that _yet_ that really bugged the shit out of me.

“Oh, Eren.” Erwin patted his back. “How was it? Did you nail it?”

Eren got up while patting his pants. “Yeah, I nailed it.”

“Good, that’s good.” He motioned to where the truck was parked. “You want to come along? We’re having a movie night.” There was something really disturbing about that smile of his. I hated him when he smiled like that.

Eren nodded. “Yes, I’ll go.” Then, he threw an arm around my shoulders right after I got up. “Levi here was cute enough to invite me.”

There he was calling me cute again. And what was with that sudden need of physical contact. “Kid, I’m going to murder you. When I told you to be happy, I didn’t mean like this.” I knew he was the touch-y kind, but I never expected him to break the first wall and get to do it that easily, not with me at least.

Erwin just laughed and leaded the way.

“You’re small, you’re easy to hug and—Ouch! Did you just…”

“Let me go.”

“Ugh… I’m going to die…” He crawled over his stomach. He was so dramatic sometimes.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re not going to die. Come on.”

“No, I’m seriously dying…”

“Hoi…”

Eren kneeled down and started trembling. “I’m dying…” He really needed to try harder to hide his laugher. “I’m seriously…”

“I’m so done with you.” I extended him my hand so he could get up. “Come on.”

“Thanks…” He said, still trying to muffle a laugh.

“You’re welcome.”

“No.” This time, however, he did go for it the serious way. Next thing, I noticed, there were limbs around me. How annoying could this brat get? “I really mean it. Thank you…”

I could have pushed him away. And I would have, if the tone in his voice wasn’t sincere enough. Usually, I really hated his kind. Even so, there was Hanji. And now, there was him. If things kept going like that, I would end up collecting a weird bunch of friends. Their kind was really the most annoying because they make you care even when you don’t really want to.

“So you followed my lead…” I mumbled.

“Huh?”

“You smell good.” He probably didn’t know, but I noticed the change in his heart beat.

Fucking brat.


End file.
